Flag of the Western European Union
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Design
The flag is dark blue with a semicircle of ten yellow five pointed stars, broken at the top, with the white letters WEU horizontally across the centre and UEO vertically across the centre sharing the letter E with the former set of initials. UEO is the French abbreviation for Western European Union (Union de l'Europe Occidentale). The flag's blue colour with yellow stars is taken from the flag of the Council of Europe and European Union, however the number of stars is ten due to the WEU membership being of that number.
There were variants for WEU bodies, such as its assembly, which were used on formal occasions.
Between 1993 and 1995, there was a similar design but with only nine stars (before Greece became a member) and the stars towards the base of the flag were progressively larger than those at the fringe. This design replaced the flag of the Western Union, the organisation that was transformed into the WEU upon the entry into force of the Modified Brussels Treaty.
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Use
The flag was rarely used, with the WEU being largely dormant before it was succeeded by the European Union's (EU) military activities. It was once flown on board an operational United States Navy warship, USS John Rodgers, when it was used as the flagship of an Italian general (with a WEU crew) commanding WEU relief operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The WEU treaty is now terminated, with WEU activities wound up by June 2011, so no further use of the flag is foreseeable.