Collective defence in Europe
Forming of the collective defence in Europe
In the early decades of the 20. century a number of attempts to creating a functional international defence mechanism failed. The most well known was the failure of the League of Nations (LN) This international establishment arosed in the year 1919 as a result on events during the WWI and as a hopeful prevention against this kind of tragedy.
The basic document – Pact of LN was set on peaceful solving of conflicts between the countries, reduction of weapon production, open diplomacy and pacifism. The LN counted 54 members, but in the last years before the starting of the WWII resigned on their membership some countries: Japan (1933), Germany and Italy (1937) and USSR (1939). The League of Nations could not prevent the conflicts in the 30´s (civil war in Spain, Chalkin Gola conflict) and it failed also in preventing the WWII and maybe that’s why was its actions stopped by the start of 1940. Formal was the LN dismissed in the 1946, from its core raised United Nations (UN). The main document of the UN – Chart was signed by the creating members (which were the “winners” of the WWII) on the 26th of June 1945. UN had grouped only about 50 members, today is it above 200. The activities of UN are quite controversal, because lot of the members do not accept the Chart or its authority. The chart of UN is a base for many safekeeping organisations with regional effect (NATO, Westeuropean union, OSCE). NATO
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) was established by signing the Washington Declaration containing the collective defense on the April 4th 1949. This declaration was signed by ten westeuropean countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Island, Luxenbourg, Norway, Portugal, Italy and Great Britain) and two northamerican countries (USA, Canada). In the year 1952 entered the NATO two more members – Greece and Turkey, in 1955 West Germany and in 1982 Spain. After the political changes in eastern Europe, after a longer reorganisation of their armed forces acceded Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic joined their ranks.
The primary agreement (Washington Declaration) contains of 10 articles, the majority of the articles speaks about general characteristics. The preamble speaks about the need to “protecting the freedom, parcenary and culture of its nations” what should be based on democracy, enactments and decrees.
One of the most important articles is the fifth, which speaks like the article 51 of the United Nations charter about the collective help in case of an aggression against a member state. This sort of aggression will be rated as an aggression against the whole alliance. NATO is not a supranational institution; it is an organisation with an international influence, based on intergovernal cooperation principles. That means the members do not give away their independence in the hands of the alliance. NATO is functionally divided into two major units: political and military. The supreme decision-making organ is the Northatlantic committee. The planning is in the competence of the Defence planning commission, where all the countries, which are participating in the military unit (part) of the alliance, are present. Existing since 1967, the Nuclear planning group deals with the mapping of the problematics of the atomic weapons and defence against this sort of weaponary. The person in charge is the general secretary, who is also the chairman of the Northatlantic committe, Defence planning commission and Nuclear planning group. After 1966 (when France abdicated on the membership in the military unit) some changes occurred in the military unit of the NATO: since this year represents the highest instance the Military commission. The members of the Military unit are here represented by the HQ officers and the non-members are represented by civil clerks or military attache. The executive agency is the International military HQ. Geographically is NATO divided into three regions:
european (SACEUR)
euroantlantic (SACLANT)
northamerican (CUSRPG)
Westeuropean union
This peace-keeping organisation, which is the successor of the Brusel pact signed in 1948, came in the 1984 to reorganisation process with the goal to establish a European Security and Defence Identity – ESDI. This agency should be an opponent to the Common Security and Foreign Policy (CSFP) which was formed by the European Union after the signing of the Maastricht act. Till now is the most important manifest is the Petersburg declaration, which was passed in June 1992. The EU also introduced additional declarations involving humanitarian and salvage actions, peacekeeping missions and crisis management. These responsibilities were included also in the intergovernal conference of the European Union during the days 16th and 17th July 1997 in Amsterdam. That means the Act of Amsterdam defines the Westeuropean union as an armed compound of the EU and a defence pier of the CSFP.
In the Act of Kirchberg (May 9th 1994) was offered to the nine EU assotiated countries a possibility of an assotiated membership. That means, that the Westeuropean union offers three different levels of membership:
full membership (10 countries)
associated members (Island, Norway, Turkey)
assotiated partnership
Besides these levels, there is also the status of the observers. These are formed from the EU and NATO members, who are not participating on the membership of the WEU. Armed forces are established from the member’s armies – Eurocorps (Benelux, Spain, Portugal), Euromarfor and Eurofor. The effectivity of the forces is often impeached, because there were not any steps taken by the WEU in the conflicts across Europe in the 90´s. Organisation for Safety and Cooperation in Europe
The discussions about this political – safeguard structure started in 1972 after the signature of the Act of Helsinki. In 1975 spreaded the organisation its influence all over the Europe. In Helsinki, during the days June 30th till august 1st 1975 was signed by the delegates of more than 30 countries from Europe, near east, USA and Canada the main document – the Final Act. This document was based on three main ways of cooperation:
The safety of Europe
Cooperation in science, technology and environmental protection
Humanitarian questions and human rights protection
In November 1990 passed the 34 member states the Chart of Paris, which contained beside other resolutions also the creation of Council of Foreign Secretaries as a forum for regular political consultations. The question about permanent armed forces is the same as by European Union. The troops are present only as military forces of the member states. However, in 1999 started OSCE negotiations with NATO, which means a vital cooperation between these two organisations.
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