Paris Agreements of 1954

a set of documents on military, political, and other questions, signed in Paris on Oct. 23, 1954, by representatives of the USA, Great Britain, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) or by representatives of these four states and representatives of Italy, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Paris Agreements went into force on May 5, 1955.

Among the three principal provisions of the Paris Agreements of 1954 are a protocol and agreements on the abolition of the occupation regime in the FRG (signed by the USA, Great Britain, France, and the FRG). Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the FRG signed protocols providing for the establishment, within the framework of NATO, of the Western European Union, a military and political organization that was to be based on an amended and enlarged version of the Brussels Treaty of 1948. A resolution signed by the members of NATO provided for the inclusion of the FRG in the North Atlantic Treaty.

The Paris Agreements of 1954 greatly weakened the limitations placed on West German military and industrial potential and legalized the armament of the FRG. At the same time, the FRG was prohibited from manufacturing atomic weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. (However, the Paris Agreements did not mention the possibility that the FRG could acquire such weapons or produce them in other countries.) The government of the FRG was illegally declared the sole representative of the entire German people in international affairs. The USA, Great Britain, and France reaffirmed their “rights” in (West) Berlin, as well as the maintenance of their armed forces there.

Signed in violation of the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the Paris Agreements of 1954 caused an increase in international tension. They were resolutely opposed by the USSR, the German Democratic Republic, and the other socialist states, as well as by the peace-loving public of the European countries.