One last thing

1
One last thing

• A quote often ascribed to Monnet, but in fact a
  paraphrase of a characterization of Monnet's
  intentions by British Conservative Adrian Hilton
• "Europe's nations should be guided towards a
  super state without their people understanding
  what is happening. This can be accomplished by
  successive steps each disguised as having an
  economic purpose, but which will eventually and
  irreversibly lead to federation."
• Monnet expressed somewhat similar sentiments, but
  without the notion of intentional deception
  (sectorial integration)
• "Via money Europe could become political in five
  years
• "... the current communities should be completed
  by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to
  European economic unity. Only then would ... the
  mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce
  the political union which is the goal.
• Nonetheless, from a British point of view even
  this could suspiciously look like a dirigist,
  undemocratic, illegitimate super-state built in
  the back of the people

2
green pool, white pool, transport pool??

• The community buzz building other bridges?
• Agricultural products?
• Agriculture and the rural world in France
• In the 1950s, overproduction in France creating
  an outlet through economic cooperation?
• June 12th 1950 a project is given to the
  government by personalities in the French MRP,
  under the leadership of the legislator Pierre
  Pflimlin.
• failure due to insufficient support and the will
  of the government to concentrate on the ECSC
• A transport pool Edouard Bonnefous project,
  August 1950
• A French legislator, proposes to the Council of
  Europe a regulation of transport systems in a
  frame larger than the ECSC
• Internal opposition in France, lack of political
  support, opposition of foreign countries, too
  large
• Question is handed to the European Conference of
  Ministers of Transport under the OEEC, created in
  October 1953
• After the ratification of the ECSC, in September
  1952, proposal by the French government
• A community in the health sector, with a common
  market on drugs and medical material, and a
  common policy on the harmonization of research
  policies
• Failure again project transferred to the Council
  of Europe

3
A European Army?

• July 1950-April 1951 negotiations for the treaty
  of Paris
• October 24th 1950, French Prime Minister René
  Pleven speaks to the French National Assembly
• Proposes negotiations for the creation of a
  European Defence Community
• The French government proposes the creation,
  for the purposes of common defence, of a European
  army tied to the political institutions of a
  united Europe.
• Why?

4
Security cooperation and the rearmement of Germany

• August 1950, Winston Churchills speech in
  Strasbourg, in front of the consultative assembly
  of the Council of Europe
• Creating a European Army, as a way to strengthen
  European ties
• The Acheson bomb September 1950, the question of
  Western German rearmament
• Will the solidarity created by the ECSC be enough
  for France to control the resurgence of Western
  Germany?
• Before that, also, in December 1949
• American newspaper interview with Konrad
  Adenauer the German Chancellor proposes a
  European Army
• Adenauer wants the equality of rights, a return
  to the full prerogatives of a state, in a
  European setting able to reassure especially
  France Western German units in a European army

5
Solving French problems

• How to deal with the rearmament of Western
  Germany? Like for coal and steel, the French
  leaders feel they have to control that
• Cold War and American pressures for a rearmament
  of Europe, fear of Soviet power
• September 19th 1950
• In New York Dean Acheson, Ernest Bevin and
  Robert Schuman decide to simplify the occupation
  status of Western Germany and envisage a German
  participation in a European army
• Schuman forced he first refused German
  rearmament in 1949
• Jean Monnet, again, will propose a European
  solution to these problems
• Building on Adenauers proposal
• Cooperation inside NATO? A European Army
  following the community method?
• September 1950 is the beginning of a crisis in
  the negotiations of the ECSC Monnet aims at
  keeping the Germans at the table, and he proposes
  to associate Western Germanys rearmament to the
  deal both negotiations would be linked, to give
  the Germans a reason to stay in the negotiations.

6

• A difficult choice its seems nothing can be done
  to delay US pressures. One solution is NATO, the
  other is the Monnet method of cooperation inside
  European institutions
• Monnet starts lobbying René Pleven for a European
  Army in the autumn of 1950
• Controlling the rearmament of Western Germany
  through an integrated European military
  organization
• American pressures (avoiding a security vacuum)
  and a diffuse fear of Soviet power
• Monnet wants to find another solution than the
  one proposed by European NATO countries,
  Washington, and a French military attached to
  cooperation with NATO Western German units
  inside NATO

7

• René Pleven seldom studied.
• Center Right, liberal, moderately Europeist
• He accepted to endorse Monnets project as a
  gambit, hoping it would give France a control
  over Western German rearmament
• October 24th 1950, speech to the French National
  Assembly
• Draft by Monnet
• The pooling of military resources between
  European countries, common institutions to manage
  that, a European ministry of Defense, a common
  budget.
• National small units would be integrated into
  large multinational units
• Tasks that can be tackled only in common must be
  matched by common institutions. A united European
  army, made up of forces from the various European
  nations must, as far as possible, pool all of its
  human and material components under a single
  political and military European authority.
• A dramatic, unprecedented, symbolic moment

8
Mitigated reactions

• In Washington
• Delaying German rearmament? A complex,
  unrealistic plan (what language?...)? A French
  scheme to weaken NATO?
• Monnet sells the plan to Washington through
  discussions in December 1950
• European countries
• The most Atlantists have the same reactions than
  Washington (the Netherlands)
• Western Germany
• Adenauer is cautious, but he warmed up to the
  idea after Schuman said in a speech in November
  1950 that a Western German rearmament would be
  acceptable for France

9
Negotiations

• Contacts start in Paris in February 1951 between
  5 countries France, Western Germany, Belgium,
  Italy, Luxemburg
• The French emphasize control over Western
  Germany, and downgrading NATOs role in Europe
• Does it sound familiar? Sarkozy, NATO and the
  European pillar, 2009?
• The Germans are less and less convinced of the
  necessity to negotiate on that, since they are
  assured to get the equality of rights through
  American pressures
• Spring 1951, the negotiations are locked, but
  they open up in June-July
• Dwight Eisenhower, Commander in Chief of NATO, is
  lobbied by Monnet and weights in, declaring that
  a European Army would be the best way to organize
  European security against the Soviet Union
• The Pleven plan is modified
• The common defence minister is replaced by a more
  technical defence secretary
• The multinational divisions are replaced by 40
  national divisions working under the same uniform
• The organization is placed under NATO supervision
• A treaty is finally signed on May 27th 1952 A
  European Community of Defence (ECD)

10
Ratifying the treaty

• A quick process everywhere
• Western Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg ratify the
  treaty between 1952 and 1953
• The ECD seems a good compromise it gives Bonn
  the equality of rights, create a European defence
  organization under NATO, seems to reassure the
  French, supports Italy, creates more European
  solidarity
• except in France
• The debate is so fierce in 1952-1954 that Italy
  decides to wait for the result of the
  ratification in France before ratifying
• Changes in the international situation Stalins
  death in 1953, the détente between the US and
  Russia, end of the war in Korea in summer 1953
  make things look less grim who needs that ECD
  now?
• France becomes the battleground of community
  Europe

11

• French general elections in June 1951
• A victory for forces hostile to European
  integration à la Jean Monnet
• A heterogeneous group the military, communists,
  Gaullists, the Extreme-right, etc
• Main problems the abandon of sovereignty, the
  abandon of absolute control on the French Army,
  long-standing defiance against Germany. For the
  communists, anti-americanism (US go home!)
• Not all opposed to European cooperation, but
  opposed to the supranational method
• A project more symbolic and divisive than the
  ECSC, easier to vilify
• The ECD crossed a line
• Raymond Aron the worst ideological debate since
  the Dreyfus affair
• Partisans of the project an embattled minority
• The Christian-democrats are the only ones openly
  defending the project
• The Socialists are divided
• Schuman has to step out of government in early
  1953 after Gaullist pressure on him
• The marginal role of a divided public opinion
• Unsubtle pressures from Washington

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13
Pierre Mendès-France and the ECD

• Prime Minister of France in the summer 1954, when
  the debate arrives at the National Assembly
• The main figure of the French Left, a symbol of
  probity, Prime Minister in June 1954
• Symbol of the division of the French Left on
  European integration
• Considerable personal reservations on
  supranational European integration, advocates a
  confederation, regrets the absence of
  Great-Britain
• Conceptions of French security that run against
  the ECD deterrence, acquisition of nuclear
  weaponry, etc
• Control over the French army during wars of
  decolonization
• Opposed to the project, he does very little to
  defend it in the Parliament
• He tries to get compromises, but nothing comes
  out of it
• After a tensed debate, the French national
  Assembly rejects the treaty on August 30th 1954
• At the end, communists and gaullists sing the
  Marseillaise
• M. Jean Nocher We ask now that the partisans of
  the ECD sing the Deutschland über alles!

14
Aftermath of August 1954

• A powerful reminder of the difficulties and of
  Frances divisions over European integration
• Fragile compromise on integration methods that
  are limited, gradual The ECD was going too fast
  
• Consternation among Frances partners
• France moves down in US commitment in Europe
• France has anyway to accept a Western German
  rearmament inside NATO
• The Paris Accords, October 23rd 1954 End of the
  occupation regime, Western Germany and Italy are
  allowed into a new Western European Union, and
  can recreate armies inside the NATO framework
• Burying the European Political Community
• A project born by federalist personalities
  disappointed by the Council of Europe (de
  Gasperi, Spinelli)
• After the signature of the ECD treaty in March
  1952, the consultative assembly of the Council
  asked the ECSC Assembly to create an ad hoc
  assembly and committees to reflect on the future
  institutions of the Political Community
• In March 1953, a draft treaty is written
• Reactions are very cautious. The rejection of the
  ECD kills the idea
• The question of defense and political cooperation
  is swept under the rug for 45 years, until
  Maastricht

15
Then?

• The failure of the European Army was a bad blow
• For the idea of European supranational and
  sectorial integration, the Jean Monnet way
  represented by the ECSC
• For France as the major motor in integration
  schemes
• Also, France is weakened by decolonization
  warfare (Algeria 1954, Indochina, etc)
• The crisis of Suez in 1956 is a bad blow to
  French international credibility
• Other actors are less active
• Western Germany does not need more integration
  schemes it has the equality of rights,
  territorial sovereignty, etc
• Adenauer remains, though

16
A relaunch, 1954-1957

• New momentum from other quarters the 1954-1957
  Relaunch
• The United States continue to support European
  integration
• The US economic model also inspires European
  leadership reforming, modernizing, adapting at
  the European level
• A group around the High Authority and Jean Monnet
• A new, technical, limited project?
• The countries of the Benelux
• Especially some personalities Paul-Henri Spaak,
  J. Beyen in the Netherlands
• Differences in details, but the common idea of a
  need for new projects
• Small states, europeism and specific interests