1949

April 1949 - September 1949 | Background and preliminary facts

Contents of 1:

After the II congress of the UEF in Rome, discussions on strategy continued in the UEF and encountered a crucial moment with the Spinelli report at the MFE Congress held in Florence from April 23rd to 25th 1949, on the eve of the agreement on the institution of the Council of Europe.

This report contained the fundamental observations which would constitute the basis of the UEF’ actions, starting with the campaign for the Federal Pact.

Spinelli expressed a clear vision of the limits of the functionalist integration initiated by the European governments at that time and, at the same time, of the opportunities that it offered to the federalist struggle. He radically criticised the conviction of the supporters of the functionalist approach according to whom it was possible to effectively and permanently unify, in a gradual way and separately from each other, the various sectors (economic, military, foreign policy) currently under the command of individual governments, postponing sine die the creation of a supranational political power. This position was countered by the constitutionalist approach, or rather the necessity of creating, through the democratic constituent method, a federal European constitution as an invaluable framework within which a gradual but effective and irreversible European integration process could be implemented. This criticism, however, was not limited to a mechanical and doctrinal opposition.

On the one hand, Spinelli was clearly aware that the functionalist approach had its roots in the structurally contradictory behaviour of the national governments with respect to European unification. The policy of European integration was imposed by the historic situation, i.e. by the irreversible crisis of the nation states (by the ‘‘unite or perish’’ alternative), on which were grafted the factors represented by American pressure in favour of European unity, by the fear held by the leading democratic classes of communist advances, and by the matter of German reconstruction. At the same time, the national governments tended to resist permanent transfers of sovereignty, and naturally preferred an approach which indefinitely postponed the creation of fully federal institutions.On the other hand, Spinelli was just as aware that the functionalistic approach was structurally a bringer of grave contradictions, which opened the way for concrete constitutionalist initiatives. There were two fundamental contradictions. The first was constituted by the democratic deficit in the functionalist integration process.

It transferred important decisions on a supranational level without simultaneously transferring the procedures of democratic control to the same level.
Therefore, this situation was destined to create unease in all those who seriously believed in democratic principles and who as such could not be insensitive to the appeal to democratise European integration. The second contradiction was represented by the structurally precarious results obtained with the functionalist approach. As the functionalist institutions were ultimately founded on the unanimous decisions of governments, they would have shown themselves to be incapable of producing adequate results in difficult situations. As a consequence,
they would have frustrated the expectations raised by the European initiatives of governments in public opinion and in the economic and social forces with an interest in integration. This frustration could have been transformed into support for federal institutions.

Despite highlighting the serious deficiencies of the Council of Europe, the federalists recognised that the Advisory Assembly was the first European institution to overcome the principle of state representation. The Assembly would not be formed by national delegations, but each member would debate and vote without an imperative mandate. It would therefore be able to give a voice to a pro-European orientation of public opinion, obtain support from national parliaments and express the tendency to acquire effective power. In this situation, the UEF, gaining leverage from the need to submit to democratic control and accelerate the integration process that was taking its first steps on an economic (through the OEEC and the first attempts to customs union) and military (the Brussels Pact and the Atlantic Pact) level, attempted to push the Strasbourg Assembly to promote the creation of federal institutions.

It would therefore have to persuade state authorities that it was necessary to approve a Federal Pact for the United States of Europe and prepare a draft of the said pact to submit to the appropriate national bodies for ratification.

(From the foundation to the decision on direct election of the european parliament 1946-1974 by Sergio Pistone)

Folder of the campaign

The documents of this Campaign are part of the UEF archives deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union  and are available online in digital format.

The archival file on this Campaign includes the complete documentation, including preparatory documents, notes, speeches, minutes, reports, correspondence, and newspaper articles.

The entire file can be viewed here: LINK

The Council of Europe and the first attempt to unite Europe politically

The Council of Europe was signed into existence on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London, the organisation's founding Statute which set out the three basic values that should guide its work: democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

It was signed in London on that day by ten states: BelgiumDenmarkFranceIrelandItalyLuxembourg, the NetherlandsNorwaySweden and the United Kingdom, though Turkey and Greece joined three months later.

On 10 August 1949, 100 members of the council's Consultative Assembly, parliamentarians drawn from the twelve member nations, met in Strasbourg for its first plenary session, held over 18 sittings and lasting nearly a month. They debated how to reconcile and reconstruct a continent still reeling from war, yet already facing a new East–West divide, launched the radical concept of a trans-national court to protect the basic human rights of every citizen, and took the first steps in a process that would eventually lead to the creation of an offshoot organisation, the European Union.

In August 1949, Paul-Henri Spaak resigned as Belgium's foreign minister in order to be elected as the first president of the assembly. Behind the scenes, he too had been quietly working towards the creation of the council, and played a key role in steering its early work. However, in December 1951, after nearly three years in the role, Spaak resigned in disappointment after the Assembly rejected proposals for a "European political authority". Convinced that the Council of Europe was never going to be in a position to achieve his long-term goal of a unified Europe, he soon tried again in a new and more promising format, based this time on economic integration, becoming one of the founders of the European Union.


Source Wikipedia: Link

crossarrow-up