From the Second World War to the Treaty of Rome

In the aftermath of the Second World War it was, however, issues of high politics rather than reflections on identity that led West European leaders to consider the necessity of integration, for the problems that faced them were immediate and pressing.

The first fact that they had to face was that the experience of the two world wars had shown clearly the catastrophic impact that national ambition and nationalist rivalries could have in the age of modern technology. Put simply, Europe had to take another, more peaceful course or risk destroying itself entirely. The second key factor was that the years of war brought about a relative decline in Europe's influence. Europe's overseas empires were toppling. The colonized peoples in the European empires were demanding greater independence and France, Holland and Britain did not, in the long run, have the will or resources to resist. As the prospect of decolonization threatened to translate into a dramatic reduction in the individual European countries' global power and influence, the temptation was to remedy this decline through a pooling of national resources through integration. Moreover, once this process began it had the effect of accelerating decolonization, for the European Powers could only find common cause if they abandoned their imperial rivalries, which included dropping the preferential trade that had existed with their colonies. However, more disturbing than the prospect of imperial decline was that even within their own continent the individual European Powers were now relatively weak compared with the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States. Pooling resources, both economic and military, appeared the only sensible way of redressing this new weakness. In short, integration was the only way in which the nations of Western Europe could avoid becoming mere pawns in the emerging Cold War international system.

Of course, there were plenty of obstacles to the process of integration, for not every European nation had the same interest. Although the former British prime minister Winston Churchill expressed his support for a ‘United States of Europe' in 1946, Britain rejected anything that went beyond establishing a free trade area. The initial steps therefore were tentative. The first significant move came in 1949

European Union (EU)

A political and economic community of nations formed in 1992 in Maastricht by the signing of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). In addition to the agreements of the European Community, the EU incorporated two intergovernmental — or supranational — ‘pillars’ that tie the member states of the EU together: one dealing with common foreign and security policy, and the other with legal affairs. The number of member states of the EU has expanded from twelve in 1992 to twenty-seven in 2007.

Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Organization founded in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to provide a forum for regional economic cooperation. From 1979, and the Third Indochina War, it took on more of a political and security role. Membership increased with the accession of Brunei in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Burma in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999.

decolonization

The process whereby an imperial power gives up its formal authority over its colonies.

Marshall Plan

Officially known as the European Recovery Programme (ERP). Initiated by American Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s 5 June 1947 speech and administered by the Economic Co-operation Administration (ECA). Under the ERP the participating countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and West Germany) received more than $12 billion between 1948 and 1951.

see Chapter 9

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Established by the Treaty of Paris (1952) and also known as the Schuman Plan, after the French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, who proposed it in 1950.

The member nations of the ECSC — Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany — pledged to pool their coal and steel resources by providing a unified market, lifting restrictions on imports and exports, and creating a unified labour market.

Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) The German state created in 1949 out of the former American, British and French occupation zones. Also known as West Germany. In 1990 the GDR merged into the FDR, thus ending the post-war partition of Germany.

with the founding of the Council of Europe, which was a pan-European body set up to protect democratic principles and sponsor the integration of legal norms. With its seat in Strasbourg, the Council remains the oldest body that specifically promotes Europe-wide standards and integration. In six decades its membership has risen from ten to forty-seven countries. The European Convention of Human Rights (1950) and the European Court of Human Rights (founded in the same year) remain its most significant achievements.

From early on, though, it was clear that the two key continental Powers, France and Germany, preferred a much ‘deeper’ form of co-operation that looked beyond the espousal of values to real economic and political integration. For both countries integration was a means of enhancing prosperity and security and thus aiding the massive task of reconstruction. Above all, however, they were faced with the knowledge that their national rivalry, which had contributed so significantly to the calamity of the world wars, could not be allowed to continue and that it could only be tempered through mutually advantageous co-operation. They were not the only ones to realize this, however, for one of the great ironies of European integration was that in the immediate post-war period it received a strong push from the United States. An integral part of the Marshall Plan was that it was intended to provide a stimulus for the breaking down of tariff barriers within Europe.

In 1947-48, participating countries were required to design a joint plan for recovery, which forced them to work together in the Organization of European Economic Co-operation. In April 1948 the inclusion of West Germany in the plan further clarified the American position, indicating that they viewed the economic integration of the former enemy states as a key to Europe’s future peace and prosperity.

The United States thus helped to stimulate integration, but it was the Europeans who were behind the first major step. The creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 represented the first milestone. Coal and steel production was not only essential for the reconstruction of countries in Europe, but they were also the economic sectors that had been most important for the production of munitions in the two world wars. Accordingly, even after the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1949, France initially maintained its occupation of the main German steel production area, the Saarland region, in order to deny Germany any chance of rearming. However, in 1950 the French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, proposed the creation of a supra-national institution that would oversee coal and steel production, thus neutralizing French distrust and German resentment. This proposal was known as the Schuman Declaration, but the man who authored the plan and became the first president of the ECSC’s High Authority was Jean Monnet, a former deputy secretary-general of the League of Nations who many consider to be the founding father of European integration. Schuman and Monnet were subsequently able to persuade Belgium, France, the FRG, Italy, Luxembourg and Holland of the benefits of the ECSC, but the attempt to win over Britain failed, and thus the original ‘Six’ came into being.

Even without the British, the founding countries of the ECSC continued to expand the scope of integration. Not all of their initiatives were successful. Following the ECSC proposal, the French proposed the creation of a European Defence Community (EDC) as a means of nullifying the threat posed by West German rearmament.

Ironically, although the treaty was negotiated and signed by the ‘Six' in 1952, the French National Assembly then refused to ratify it. Thus, an early opportunity to move towards a common European security policy was missed and instead West German rearmament took place under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance.

In 1957, however, only three years after the collapse of the EDC, representatives from the six ECSC countries gathered in Rome to consider ambitious plans for deepening economic integration beyond coal and steel production. The result was two treaties: one founded the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), and the other the EEC. Of these the latter was vastly more important, for it created the basic building blocks of modern integrated Europe. Like the future EU, the EEC was forged through a process of compromise that sought to meet the various states' interests. The French, for example, were far more protectionist than the Germans or the Dutch, but accepted the principle of a common market in return for a major role in atomic energy development, the establishment of a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the association of colonial territories with the EEC on favourable terms (Belgium and France were the only ones of the Six that still had substantial colonial holdings in 1957). Meanwhile, the Italians, who were economically in the poorest state, received other incentives, most importantly free movement of labour and the creation of a European Investment Bank to promote regional development. Although the Rome Treaties were very much a result of a high-level poker game between national politicians, the end result was still impressive. When it entered into force on 1 January 1958, the EEC represented a common market of 167 million people, and its key countries, France and West Germany, had moved from bitter rivalry to the beginning of an integration process that would change European history.

see Chapter 9

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Established by the North Atlantic Treaty (4 April 1949) signed by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Greece and Turkey entered the alliance in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. Spain became a full member in 1982. In 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined in the first postCold War expansion, increasing the membership to nineteen countries.

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Source: Best Antony. International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Routledge,2008. — 638 p.. 2008

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