Defence ministers from the 28 member countries of the Western European Union (WEU) met this week

Date: 19/11/1998

to discuss ways of improving the EU's ability to respond militarily to crisis situations. They supported the idea that Europe needed to be able to react more effectively, especially when the US was not directly involved, but there was no agreement on changing the role and status of the WEU given that the EU, WEU and NATO have different members.