Chapter 19 THE EU AS A BLACK WIDOW: DEVOURING THE WEU TO GIVE BIRTH TO A EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY by Ramses A. Wessel * Summary The Treaty of Nice will finally turn the European Union into a security and de- fence organisation. Alongside its tasks in all other areas the Union will be given the competence to strengthen its contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security in accordance with the UN Charter. This Chapter deals with the development of a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) over the past few years with particular focus on the international legal aspects of the rela- tionship of the EU with the Western European Union (WEU). The EU courted the WEU for ten years. This finally seems to have paid off with the birth of an early and fragile European Security and Defence Policy, albeit at the price of sacrificing the WEU. Keywords ESDP; CFSP; European Defence Policy; WEU. 1. Introduction After 50 years of regular attempts by some Member States to extend the scope of the European Community/Union to issues of military security and defence, it seems that these days we are witnessing a final breakthrough. Since the end of 1998 the European Union has been actively developing a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Ever since the attempts in the 1950s to increase defence coopera- tion between the Western European States in a manner surpassing pure intergovern- 405 V. Kronenberger, ed., The EU and the International Legal Order: Discord or Harmony? © 2001, T.M.C.Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands * Associate Professor of International and European Law, Center for European Studies, University of Twente, Enschede; and at the Department of the Law of International Organizations, Utrecht University.