ABSTRACT
Reflecting the increasing western preoccupation with the Soviet Union over 1947-8, the Brussels Treaty, committing Britain, France and the Benelux countries to each others’ defence, had a more universal orientation than the Treaty of Dunkirk, of 1947 although it too referred explicitly to a possible German threat. Article IV provided for automatic assistance in the event of attack and was therefore a much stronger commitment than the NATO Treaty (see document 1/2) which was to follow a year later. The Brussels Treaty, due to expire in 1998, but with the same possibilities of renewal as that of Dunkirk, was the basis of the Paris Agreements of 1954, which set up the WEU and the eventual moving together of the EU and the WEU via the treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam (see documents 1/8, 2/18 and 2/22).
