ABSTRACT
The most immediate task after the signing of the TEU was to develop a working relationship between the Western European Union (WEU) and the EC. The Secretary-General of the WEU was only rarely invited to the highest level meetings of the EU General Affairs Council and this tension percolated down throughout the two organisational structures. The TEU gave the WEU authority to carry out Joint Actions but this has not been used, resulting in the absence of meaningful EU-WEU cooperative action. It was unrealistic to expect that a meaningful European defence capability could be created without building up the military resources of the WEU. The unwillingness of European states to invest greater military capabilities in the WEU helped to determine the type of operational roles that it could undertake. The absence of agreement over the building blocks of a European defence policy meant that debate never reached more complex issues.
