Editing Western European Union (section)

===1984–1998: Revival ===
{{Further|Rome Declaration|Petersberg Declaration}}
From the late 1970s onwards, efforts were made to add a security dimension to the [[European Communities]]' [[European Political Cooperation]] (EPC), namely through the Genscher-Colombo Initiative.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cuccia |first1=Deborah |title=The Genscher-Colombo Plan: A forgotten page in the European Integration History |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209192142id_/https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0947-9511-2018-1-59.pdf |website=Internet Archive |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref> Opposition to these efforts from Denmark, Greece and Ireland<ref>{{cite web |last1=Regelsberger |first1=Elfriede |title=European Political Cooperation (EPC) |url=https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1478?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780190228637.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780190228637-e-1478&p=emailAgc8EOHG1T7NE |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref> led the remaining EC countries – all WEU members – to reactivate the WEU in 1984 by adopting the [[Rome Declaration]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/news/06/0616/jargon.shtml|title=BBC Politics 97|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> Prior to this point there had been minimal use of the provisions of the Modified Brussels Treaty.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001 |title=THE EU AS A BLACK WIDOW: DEVOURING THE WEU TO GIVE BIRTH TO A EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY |url=https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/pa/archive/research/wessel/wessel26.pdf |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=[[University of Twente]]}}</ref>

[[File:Petersberg-077.JPG|thumb|[[Hotel Petersberg]], where the Petersberg tasks were defined in 1992.]]
In 1992, the WEU adopted the [[Petersberg Declaration]], defining the so-called ''Petersberg tasks'' designed to cope with the possible destabilising of Eastern Europe. The WEU itself had no standing army but depended on cooperation between its members. Its tasks ranged from the most modest to the most robust, and included [[humanitarian]], rescue and [[peacekeeping]] tasks as well as tasks for combat forces in [[crisis management]], including [[peacemaking]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/browse/summaries.html|title=Summaries of EU Legislation - EUR-Lex|website=eur-lex.europa.eu}}</ref>

At the 1996 NATO ministerial meeting in Berlin, it was agreed that the Western European Union would oversee the creation of a European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI) within NATO structures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nato.int/docu/comm/1996/9606-brl/9606-brl.htm|title=NATO Ministerial Meetings Berlin - 3-4 June 1996|website=www.nato.int}}</ref> The ESDI was intended as a European 'pillar' within NATO, partly to allow European countries to act militarily where [[NATO]] wished not to, and partly to alleviate the United States' financial burden of maintaining [[military base]]s in Europe, which it had done since the Cold War. The Berlin agreement allowed European countries (through the WEU) to use NATO assets if it so wished.