The Petersberg Declaration was adopted by ministers of the

Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...

on 19 June 1992 at

Hotel Petersberg Hotel Petersberg is a hotel and official guest house of the Federal Republic of Germany, termed the "Bundesgästehaus" (the official title being ''Gästehaus der Verfassungsorgane der Bundesrepublik Deutschland''). It is located on the Petersberg, ...

, near

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It defined

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

tasks of a

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

, disarming, peacekeeping and peacemaking nature that the WEU would be empowered to do. The contents and responsibilities arising from the declaration, known as the Petersberg Tasks, were later transferred to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

's (EU)

European Security and Defence Policy The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The CSDP involves the deplo ...

(ESDP), presently known as the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

Outline

The member states agreed to deploy their troops and resources from across the whole spectrum of the military under the authority of the WEU. The tasks, which covered a range of possible military missions ranging from the most simple to the most robust military intervention, were formulated as: *

Humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

and

rescue Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, or the urgent treatment of injuries after an accident or a dangerous situation. Tools used might include search and rescue dogs, mounted search and rescue ho ...

tasks *

Peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United N ...

tasks * Tasks of combat forces in

crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envir ...

, including

peacemaking Peacemaking is practical conflict transformation focused upon establishing equitable power relationships robust enough to forestall future conflict, often including the establishment of means of agreeing on ethical decisions within a community, ...

. Officially, the range of tasks the EU/WEU committed itself to "included" the above, but were not limited to them. In practice, the task of

territorial defence Territorial Defense or Territorial Defense Forces may refer to: Active * Territorial Troops Militia, a Cuban paramilitary militia under the command of the MINFAR * Territorial Forces (Finland) * Territorial Troops (Kazakhstan) * Territorial Def ...

is considered the domain of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. As 21 of the 27 EU member states are also NATO members, there are many provisions to prevent competition with NATO.

Transfer to the EU

As a part of the partial merger of the WEU with the European Union, these tasks became part of the European Security and Defence Policy, and were central to strengthening the European Union's second pillar, the

Common Foreign and Security Policy The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, whic ...

. In 1997, during the

European summit The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the tasks were incorporated in the

Treaty on European Union The Treaty on European Union (2007) is one of the primary Treaties of the European Union, alongside the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The TEU form the basis of EU law, by setting out general principles of the EU's ...

. Both the WEU, NATO and the EU could enforce the Petersberg tasks, but with the transfer of the most important WEU assets to the EU in 1999, this distinction became mostly artificial. The transfer of bodies from the WEU to the EU as well as the collective defence clause of the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member sta ...

, which entered into force in 2009, rendered the WEU obsolete, and the WEU was abolished in 2011.

References

External links

Full text of the Petersberg Declaration

Full text of the Maastricht WEU Declaration, precursor to the Petersberg Declaration
{{EU treaties and declarations Declarations of the European Union Western European Union Petersberg (Siebengebirge)

Outline

Transfer to the EU

See also

References

External links