On 24 November 1975, the British daily newspaper The Guardian publishes an article by Conservative MP Julian Critchley, Chairman of the Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU), in which he outlines the issues involved in the standardisation of armaments, particularly the establishment of a secretariat for European defence markets, and speculates on France’s position on this question. He believes that France will not take part since the idea was mooted by the Eurogroup, a body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).