House of the Living Dead

European Voice (Link) (April 15, 2010)

The Permanent Council of the Western European Union has not met at ministerial level since 2000, having been supplanted by the EU�s efforts to construct a Common Security and Defence Policy.

The council is not looking very permanent: a fortnight ago, the ten most long-established members of the Western European Union (WEU) declared that the organisation had �accomplished its historical role� and that the treaty would be terminated. The ten states gave the council until June 2011 to close the organisation down. The main task will be laying off the organisation�s 60 staff in Brussels and Paris and deciding what to do with the WEU�s premises in the two cities.

But in the meantime, the parliamentary assembly of the Western European Union refuses to shut up shop. While the European Parliament is about to acquire 18 phantom MEPs, the WEU parliamentary assembly has a whole house full of 400 living dead.

Piero Fassino, who rejoices in the titles of chairman of the political committee of the assembly of the Western European Union and rapporteur for the western Balkans, was in Belgrade yesterday and today (14-15 April) for �an intensive round of meetings and discussions with members of the Serbian leadership.�

Albania is next on his itinerary as he prepares a report for the assembly�s plenary session in June about the Western Balkan countries �prospects for membership of the EU � not in the lifetime of the WEU would be a fair summary.