In this interview, Charles Goerens, Luxembourg Minister for Defence from 1999 to 2004, former member of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) and its President from 1987 to 1990, looks back over the main issues addressed during the Luxembourg Presidency of the WEU Council in 1999.

In this interview, Charles Goerens, Luxembourg Minister for Defence from 1999 to 2004, former member of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) and its President from 1987 to 1990, explains Luxembourg’s position on some general defence issues and on the decision taken in 2000 to transfer some of WEU’s bodies and powers to the European Union in connection with the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

In this interview, Charles Goerens, Luxembourg Minister for Defence from 1999 to 2004, former member of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) and its President from 1987 to 1990, deplores the lack of awareness of the indivisible nature of solidarity in European defence matters, as well as the absence, in the European treaties before the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon, of a clause for mutual assistance in the event of conflict.

In this interview, Charles Goerens, Luxembourg Minister for Defence from 1999 to 2004, former member of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) and its President from 1987 to 1990, describes the contacts between the WEU Assembly and the WEU Council, in particular since the Council has not met at ministerial level following the decision taken in 2000 to transfer powers to the European Union.