Petersberg Declaration

It defined military tasks of a humanitarian, 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's (EU) European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), presently known as the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

The member states agreed to deploy their troops and resources from across the whole spectrum of the military under the authority of the WEU.

In practice, the task of territorial defence is considered the domain of NATO.

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.