History and Theory of European
Integration
Marina V. Larionova
JEAN MONNET European Module
Lecture 3
The Decade of De Gaulle (1958-1969)
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British applications and rejections
Veto of the UK accession
Fouchet plan for a political community
Elysee Treaty
Merger Treaty
De Gaulle’s resignation
The Limits of Spill Over method
JEAN MONNET European Module
Readings for the lecture
• Dinan Desmond (1999) Ever Closer Union. An Introduction to
European Integration. Second edition. The European Union Series.
Palgrave. Chapter 2 and Chapter 12;
• Monnet J. A Ferment of Change. (1962). The European Union.
Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration, Nelsen
B.F. and Alexander C – G. Stubb (eds.), Palgrave, 1998;
• Monnet J. Europe Needs Britain (1961). The Pro-European Reader.
Leonard D. and Leonard M.(eds.), Palgrave, 2002;
• Gaulle Charle de. A Concert of European States (1965). The
European Union. Readings on the Theory and Practice of European
Integration, Nelsen B.F. and Alexander C – G. Stubb (eds.), Palgrave,
1998;
JEAN MONNET European Module
De Gaulle’s contentions contribution to the
European integration
• Foundations of the Common Agricultural
Policy
Implementation of the EEC Treaty provisions for
Common Agricultural Policy as a condition for the
customs union and common external tariff
enforcement
• Keeping the UK out of the EEC
• The triumph of intergovernmental method in EEC
construction
JEAN MONNET European Module
Jean Monnet’s method for introducing change in
Europe:
Inherent features
1. The profound change is being made possible essentially by
the new method of common action which is the core of
the European community. This method has become a
permanent dialogue between a single European body,
responsible for expressing the view of the general
interest of the Community, and the national governments,
expressing the national views.
2. To agree on the objectives and to negotiate afterwards.
An overall settlement is unlikely to be reached by
haggling over the details. Details fall into place and
specific problems are more easily solved when they are
looked at in the framework of a general agreement.
JEAN MONNET European Module
Jean Monnet’s method for introducing change in
Europe: Inherent features
3. The system is not federal, because there is no central
government; the nations take their decisions together in
the Council of Ministers. On the other hand, the
independent European body proposes policies, and the
common element is further underlined by the European
Parliament and the European Court of Justice.
4. Trust in the wisdom and strength of the existing
institutions is needed to discuss the problems as common
problems, using the machinery of the community, which
has been devised for that specific purpose.
JEAN MONNET European Module
Jean Monnet’s method for introducing change in
Europe inherent features
5. Common rules applied by joint institutions give each a
responsibility for effective working of the Community as
a whole.
6. European unity is not a blueprint, it is not a theory, it is a
process of bringing people and nations together to find
a way out of conflicts,… to adapt themselves jointly to
changing circumstances.
7.
The new institutional method is permanently
modifying relations between nations and men. Human
nature does not change, but when nations and men
accept the same rules and the same institutions to
make sure that they are applied, their behavior
towards each other changes. This is the process of
JEAN MONNET European Module
civilization itself.
The EC four years of harmony between the governments of
the member states and the EC institutions
• Commission portfolios – external relations, economic and
financial affairs, the internal market, competition, social affairs,
agriculture, transport, overseas territories;
• Progress in elimination tariff barriers, success of commercial and
external relations policy;
• Economic growth in Western Europe / increased trade activity;
• EC emerging international identity / GATT and Yaounde
Convention;
• Competition, social affairs, transport, agriculture
impasse;
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policies
Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community
Article 6
1.
The Common market shall be progressively established
during a transitional period of twelve years.
This transitional period shall be divided into three stages of
four years each; the length of each stage may be
altered in accordance with the provisions set out
below.
JEAN MONNET European Module
The key general findings of the analysis
(1958)
1.
2.
3.
4.
The initiation of the integration process does not require
absolute majority support, nor need it rest on identical
aims on the part of the key participants.
Acceptance of a federal scheme is facilitated if the
participating state units are already fragmented
ideologically and socially.
Acceptance of the integration scheme is facilitated if the
participating groups, political, industrial, labor, have a
tradition of consultations and shared values.
Integration process is facilitated by existence of an
external threat, real or imagined.
JEAN MONNET European Module
The key general findings of the analysis
(1958)
5.
The central institution once established will affect
political integration process if it acquires the capacity
to raise positive expectations.
6.
Group pressure will spill over into the federal sphere
and add to the integrative impulse.
7.
National governments may attempt to sidestep, or
sabotage the decisions of the federal authority, however,
in the long run they tend to defer to federal decisions.
JEAN MONNET European Module
The key general findings of the analysis
(1958)
8.
The major interest groups determine their support or
opposition to the central institutions policies on the
basis of a calculated advantage.
9.
The process of community formation will succeed if the
crucial expectations, ideologies and behavior patterns of
the key interest groups can be refocused on a new set of
central symbols and institutions.
10. The “spill over” is not automatic and requires a
measure of political activism.
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De Gaulle’s Aims:
• Recovery of France, both economic and spiritual;
• Reestablishment of the country as a great power
invested with world responsibility for political stability
and social order;
• Regaining the country’s independence
• Reclaiming France leading international role
• Rejuvenation of industry and agricultural sector
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Challenges: Internal pressures
• Colonial wars (Algerian crisis)
• Collapse of the Fourth republic
1958 – De Gaulle negotiates a new constitutional
regime
1958 September – referendum endorsing Presidential
republic
Fifth republic – strong Presidency / exclusive
responsibility for foreign and defense policy / greater
legitimacy of the executive power
1958 December – De Gaulle elected President of
France
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Challenges: Internal pressures
• The need for financial and monetary reform
1958 - Devaluation of the frank / cutting on the
government expenditure / tax increase
• The need to stimulate the business sector facing fierce
international competition
• The imperative of industrial competitiveness
• The priority of agricultural modernization
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EEC instrumental to
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Modernization of the agricultural sector
Industrial modernization
Enhancing Europe competitiveness
Franco-German reconciliation
De Gaulle-Adenauer accord
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EC Common Agricultural Policy
(Stresa conference, July 1958)
• Guarantee of high agricultural prices based on financial solidarity
of the member states exercised through the price support and
intervention mechanism
• Provision of a European Community wide Market for agricultural
goods based on the community preferences and the free
movement of goods principles
• Subsidization of surplus produce export outside the EC through
export refunds
• Protection of internal agricultural market through a system of
import levies based on the community preference principle
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De Gaulle’s Quid pro Quo
Industrial policy on tariffs and quotas versus
Agricultural policy on tariffs and quotas
Stage 1. May 1960 – January 1962
Lowering internal customs barriers
Establishing external tariffs
Timetable for decisions to be taken on agricultural policy
Financial levy liability on imports of foodstuff from the third
countries
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1962 January 13 –14 Council Resolution
“France and common sense prevailed”
“Agriculture admitted into the Common Market”
Aim – 50 % reduction in customs duties for agricultural
goods by the end of the second stage
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External pressures
• Europe desolated and divided by the Iron Curtain
• Cold War tearing apart both European continent and the
World
• International Institutions polarized by two opposing
camps
• Germany - divided, but reindustrialized and rearmed,
hence EC perceived as an institutional framework
embedding Franco-German reconciliation
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External pressures
• European free trade area perceived as Britain’s efforts
to undermine European integration eroding the common
external tariff
• Free trade area (European Free Trade Association)
versus Common market (European Economic
Community)
• The UK special position - application to join “provided
that their special relationship with the Commonwealth
and their associates in the free trade area, as well as
their special interests in agriculture are respected”
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De Gaulle’s Principles for
the Concert of European States
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Independence of the nation
Reclaiming what was due to the country
Preserving the national identity
Shaking off the Atlantic supremacy over the Old World
Rejecting the doctrine of supranationalism
Intergovernmental cooperation on political and security affairs
Germany - the heart of the problem and the keystone of the European edifice
Germany - an integral part of the organized system of cooperation for the whole
continent
• Systemic rapprochement, not a fusion of peoples
• “Setting up of a concert of European states which in developing all sorts of ties
between them would increase their interdependence and solidarity”
• Emergence of a strong, politically and military independent Europe
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De Gaulle’s European Security Community initiative
September 1960 – Fouchet Committee
• Logic - Intergovernmental
• Approach - a Confederation of member states
• Aims - Common foreign and defense policy, cooperation on
cultural, educational and research issues
• Institutional framework – heads of states or ministerial council,
political commission based in Paris and an assembly of national
parliamentary representatives
• Results – collapse of the Fouchet plan in April 1962
• Reciprocity of Adenauer - De Gaulle support policies (CAP/ESC)
• Achievements - signing the Franco-German Treaty of Friendship
and Reconciliation in January 1963 to become a driving force of
European integration later on
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De Gaulle’s Manifestation of Nationalism
• National interests neglected in ECSC (French relinquishment of
coke in Ruhr)
• National interests neglected in EURATOM (15 years history of
the Atomic Energy Commissariat)
• National interests neglected in EEC (agricultural versus industrial
regulations)
• The doctrine of supranationalism “national self effacement” by
the leading school of thought inside France and support for
Europe seen as “edifice in which technocrats forming an
executive and parliamentarians assuming legislative powers
would have the authority to decide the fate of the French
people”
JEAN MONNET European Module
De Gaulle’s Manifestation of Nationalism
• Atlantic alliance intentions to prevent France from becoming its
own master
• Ludwig Erhard’s Atlanticist position stalling the development of
the Elyssee Treaty
• Walter Hallstein’s ambitions for Germany to regain its
respectability and preponderant influence
• The UK (Harold Macmillan) desire to undermine the project of the
six dissolving Common Market in the Free Trade Area ( “Having
failed to prevent the birth of the Community from without, they
planned to paralyze it from within”)
• Veto of the UK membership application following the
intergovernmental bargaining process (August 1961 – January
1963)
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The Empty Chair crisis and Luxembourg Compromise
1965 July – 1966 January
in view of the initial financial regulation expiry date in
July 1965 the Commission’s proposals to:
introduce the EC “own resources” funded from
agricultural levies, customs duties and up to 1 percent of
the national VAT revenue;
enhance the EP and EC budgetary powers;
introduce a system of funding CAP from the EC “own
resources”;
introduce majority voting principle into the
deliberations of the Council of Ministers
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The Empty Chair crisis and Luxembourg Compromise
1965 July – 1966 January
• Walter Hallstein announcement of the proposals to the EP in
Strasbourg
• French counter proposal to continue funding CAP from the national
contributions as of 1 July
• The Council of Ministers’ meeting on June 28 stalemate and
withdrawal of the French representatives
• De Gaulle’s attack on the qualified majority voting and insistence on
the principle of unanimity
• The Council meeting on October 25-26 with the French chair empty
• December 1965 Presidential election in France – De Gaulle’s narrow
margin victory over the candidate of Europe, Francois Mitterrand
• The Council of Ministers meeting on January 28-29, 1966
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January 28-29, 1996
Luxembourg Compromise
Financial regulation for CAP
EC own resources
EP budgetary powers
Majority voting
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Outcomes
• Agreement to disagree:
If one member state considered that a vital national interest
was at stake, the Council would endeavor to reach within a
reasonable period, solutions that could be adopted
unanimously.
The French delegation special position that when very
important interests were at issue, discussions must be
continued until unanimous agreement is reached
JEAN MONNET European Module
Outcomes
• Presumption within the Council in favor of unanimity /
“Transformation of the community spirit into a
more cost-benefit attitude of the member-states”
• Demonstration of the community dependency on the
political environment
• Shaped the political environment for the next decade
• Intergovernmentalism prevails
JEAN MONNET European Module
Objections to the Luxembourg
Compromise
• The Commission excluded from the meeting was
not party to the agreement
• The Court of Justice ruled that Resolutions and
Declaration of political will by the Council can not
prevail against the Treaty rules
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Vetoing the accession
applications
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The UK first application for EC membership
August 1961 - January 1963 / Conservatives /
Reasons for realization of the mistake of self exclusion from
the Treaty of Rome and decision to apply /Harold
Macmillan/
Success of the customs union
Failure to dissolve the EC into the EFTA
Fear of economic exclusion
The Commonwealth proving inadequate instrument
for promotion of British interests
Kennedy’s endorsement of the UK membership in
the EC
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The case for failure
 British position on ensuring its special interests in the
EFTA and the Commonwealth
 Anglo-American missile accord, December, 1962
 Decision to integrate UK nuclear force into NATO
 The lack of trust and use of intergovernmental method
of bargaining instead of Monnet’s community method
January 15, 1963 De Gaulle’s conference
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The second application May – December 1967 / Labor /
Harold Wilson
Increasing need for accession
 growing European commercial contacts and slumping
economic ties with the Commonwealth
Barriers to membership
 De Gaulle’s anti Atlantisiam - Anglo-American special
relations
 De Gaulle’s quest to preserve France’s leadership role in the
EC
December 1967 De Gaulle’s conference
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1968
• May – protests, riots and strikes in France
• June – dissolution of the parliament by the prime minister
George Pompidou / reelection of the parliament / victory of the
Gaullists
April 1969
De Gaulle’s resignation
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De Gaulle’s road towards European unity
• United Europe is only achieved through organization of
concerted action in every sphere…
• Individual States are the only valid elements, “when their
national interests are at stake nothing and nobody must be
allowed to force their hands, and the cooperation between them is
the only road that will lead anywhere.
• “although it is perfectly natural for the states of Europe to have
specialized bodies available to prepare and whenever necessary
to follow up their decisions, these decisions must be their
own”.
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Arguments for Intergovernmental approach
• “Common market, a brainchild of technocrats, carrying all the hopes
and illusions of a supranational school”.
• Fruitless bargaining with the British showed the fledgling Community
that good intention are not enough to reconcile the irreconcilable, the
Six found that even in the economic sphere alone the adjustment of
their respective positions bristled with difficulties which could not be
resolved solely on terms of treaties concluded to that end.
• “Executives of the common institutions were helpless … when it
came to making and enforcing decisions, only governments were in
a position to do this, and then only as a result of negotiations carried
out in due form between ministers and ambassadors”.
• The important measures should be subordinated to the decisions of
individual states…
• The member states decisions should be the cornerstone of the
Institutions and a guarantee of the members’ sovereignty
JEAN MONNET European Module
Recommended Readings
• Macmillan Harold “Britain’ Place and purpose in the World”.
Extract from speech at Conservative party conference, October
1961. Pro-European Reader. 2002. Palgrave.
• Kennedy F. John “The US Welcomes European Unity”. Speech at
Washington, DC, 17 may 1962. Pro-European Reader. 2002.
Palgrave
• Jenkins Roy “Let us go in with Hope and Confidence”. Speech at
labor party conference, October 1062. Pro-European Reader.
2002. Palgrave
• Wilson Harold “We mean business”. Extract from speech to the
Council of Europe, Strabourg, 23 January 1967. Pro-European
Reader. 2002. Palgrave
JEAN MONNET European Module
Lecture 4: The Intergovernmentalist
backlash
Critiques and contemplations of
Neofunctionalism
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Readings for the lecture
• Hoffman S. Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation State
and the Case of Western Europe (1966). The European Union.
Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration,
Nelsen B.F. and Alexander C – G. Stubb (eds.), Palgrave, 1998;
• Lindberg L.N. Political Integration: Definitions and Hypotheses
(1963). The European Union. Readings on the Theory and
Practice of European Integration, Nelsen B.F. and Alexander C –
G. Stubb (eds.), Palgrave, 1998;
• Rosamond Ben. (2000) Theories of European Integration. The
European Union Series. Palgrave; Chapter 4
JEAN MONNET European Module
Thank you!
JEAN MONNET European Module