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29/03/2024 05:46am

Western European Union Mission Service Medal

Conflict
 
Peace Keeping Service In Europe 1987 - 2010.
 
Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.
 
History
 
The Western European Union Mission Medal - also known as the Western Union Police Mission Medal - is a campaign medal presented for peace keeping service as authorised by the Western European Union. The Union - based on a mutual defence treaty - between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was established in 1954 and the medal was instituted in 1997 and was awarded to personnel who had served at least 30 days in the former Yugoslavia or 90 days in the Adriatic, Hungary or Rumania.
 
The Western European Union was terminated in March 2010, and service undertaken on behalf of the Union did not count as qualifying service for the Accumulated Campaign Service Medal.
 
Description
 
The medal is circular, 36mm in diameter and was struck in silver. The obverse of this medal bears the capital letters; ‘WEU’ (for Western European Union) arranged horizontally and the letters; ‘UEO’ (for Union de l’Europe Occidentale - the French equivalent of Western European Union) arranged vertically.
 
Ten five pointed stars are arranged around the letters along the lower circumference of the medal.
 
The reverse contains the inscription; ‘PRO PACE UNAN’, (meaning united for peace).
 
The ribbon is attached by way of a trough shaped ‘ringlet’ which surmounts the medal.
 
The medal was issued un-named.
 
Ribbon
 
Western Union
 
The ribbon is 34mm wide and blue in colour with a wide central yellow vertical stripe.
 
Bars/Clasps
 
This medal was issued with the following clasps:-
 
Ex Yugoslavie
Awarded for service in the former Yugoslavia. The qualifying service for this award was as follows:-
I). Served a minimum of 30 days or more as part of the Western European Union police mission.
II). Served a minimum of 90 days in the Adriatic, Hungary or Rumania.
 
Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.
 
Dealer Retail Value *
 
Western European Union Mission Service Medal
£65.00
 
* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.
 
Further Historical Context
 
This section contains information on:-
 
- The Treaty Of Brussels.
 
The Treaty of Brussels - The Treaty of Brussels was signed on 17 March 1948 between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as an expansion to the preceding year's defence pledge, the Dunkirk Treaty signed between Britain and France. As the Treaty of Brussels contained a mutual defence clause, it provided a basis upon which the 1954 Paris Conference established the Western European Union (WEU). It was terminated on 31 March 2010.
 
The Treaty was intended to provide western Europe with a bulwark against the communist threat and to bring greater collective security. The Pact had cultural and social clauses, and concepts for the setting up of a 'Consultative Council'. The basis for this was that a cooperation between Western nations would help stop the spread of Communism.
 
In that it was an effort towards European post-war security cooperation, the Brussels Pact was a precursor to NATO and similar to it in the sense that it promised European mutual defence. However, it greatly differed from NATO in that it envisaged a purely European mutual defence pact primarily against Germany, whereas NATO took shape the next year, on the recognition that Europe was unavoidably divided into two opposing blocks (western and communist), that the USSR was a much greater threat than the possibility of a resurgent Germany, and that western European mutual defence would have to be atlanticist (i.e. including North America).
 
In September 1948, the parties to the Treaty of Brussels decided to create a military agency under the name of the Western Union Defence Organization. It consisted of a WU Defence Committee at Prime Ministerial level, and a WU Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, including all the national chiefs of staff, which would direct the operative organisation.
 
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (UK) was appointed permanent Chairman of the Land, Naval and Air Commanders-in-Committee, with headquarters in Fontainebleau, France. The nominated commanders-in-chief were General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France) as C-in-C, Land Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir James Robb (UK) as C-in-C, Air Forces, and Vice-Admiral Robert Jaujard (France) for the Navy, as Flag Officer Western Europe. Volume 3 of Nigel Hamilton's Life of Montgomery of Alamein gives a good account of the disagreements between Montgomery and de Lattre which caused much ill-feeling in the headquarters.
 
Trying to avoid the need for West German rearmament, a treaty aimed at establishing a European Defense Community was signed by the six ECSC members in May 1952 but failed when it was rejected by the French National Assembly in August 1954. This rejection led to the London and Paris Conferences in September and October, with the conclusion that he Treaty of Brussels was amended by the Protocol signed in Paris on 23 October 1954, which added West Germany and Italy to the Western Union Defense Organization. On this occasion it was renamed the Western European Union.
 
This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.