Western European Union (WEU) was a defense alliance that included members of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The EU is a political and economic organization of Western European nations. NATO is the main military alliance of Western countries, including the United States. The WEU worked to strengthen NATO. The United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and West Germany formed the WEU in 1955. In 1988, Spain and Portugal joined. In 1990, newly united Germany replaced West Germany as a WEU member. Greece joined the WEU in 1992. Beginning in the late 1990’s, many of the WEU’s responsibilities shifted to the EU. The WEU ended its operations in 2011.
