Western Europe Union (WEU)

Last modified: 2000-01-14 by rick wyatt
Keywords: europe | western european union | ueo | weu | star | ` |
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• Description of the flag
• WEU Assembly
• Euromarfor
• Flag before 1993
• Older flag of the WEU

See also:

• European Union
• International Organizations

The flag of UEO (Western European Union) is very like to European Union's; it has 9 golden stars (9 are the members: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) over a blue field; it also has golden vertical writing UEO crossed with horizontal drawing WEU.
Giuseppe Bottasini

The UEO / WEU flag had at first 9 stars, and received a tenth star on 26 October 1993 with the entrance of Greece.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 9 December 1997

In the Quid 1998, the WEU Assembly's flag has 12 stars, while the WEU Council's flag has 10 stars.
Luc-Vartan Baronian, 7 December 1997

You must also add the EUROMARFOR (force maritime européenne / european maritime force) which depends of UEO / WEU, with a flag showing four yellow stars and yellow "Euromarfor" written on a blue field.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 8 December 1997

by Zeljko Heimer

There is an older flag for the WEU, adopted in 1949:

"It has a dark blue field bearing five links forming an unbroken chain, in gold[1]. The field has a multi-colored border: red (outside), gold, black, and white[2] [...] These colors were taken from the national flags of the member countries, namely, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland [sic] and Luxembourg" [car1961, p313]

Notes:
[1] The links form a kind of pentagon, but with the "point" bottommost
[2] The relative proportions of the border are approx: Red 3, each of the others 1. The total width of the border is approx half that of the depth of the flag.

I don't know when this flag was replaced by the one mentioned above, but as the WEU was effectively moribund until the end of the Cold War, it would not surprise me if the members simply forgot there had ever been one. However, I doubt the old flag would have been revived if even if they had, as blue and gold, for good or for ill have become firmly established as the European colors.

Roy Stilling 6 May 1996