The Origins of the Community Method of Integration

                                                        Paris May 9, 1950, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Quay D'Orsay, Salons de l'Horloge)

 We have already been through 9 Teaching Guides and for the first time we deal directly we the European integration process that led to the creation of the European Union in 1992. This is significant of how difficult it has been for the European Nation-States to get together. I hope that after all the reading you have done you have began to realize that creating a united Europe is not a piece of cake. And what I can assure you is that if you have worked your materials properly you are now in a position to understand the weird way of integration that is the “Community Method”. 

We have already seen on page 212 of your materials that the United States started with a very loose union defined by “The Articles of Confederation.” The 13 colonies that rebelled against the British Crown needed to coordinate for fighting the war. And when they won, thanks to the aid provided by the Spanish and the French –that desperately wanted revenge from the British- they kept together as a Confederation. You have already understood what is the essence of the Confederation. In the US, and looking to the very peculiar Swiss Model (pages 196-200). The States that enter in a Confederation do not have a strong executive power over them. Remember that Southern States in the US seceded in 1861 because they thought that Lincoln was too powerful and he was going to abolish slavery. This is why they abandoned the Federal Union and became again a Confederation. A much looser union in which the states did not have a strong power over them and therefore they had to negotiate all common decisions. 

In 1945 the governments of the destroyed European Nation-States realized that if they did not get together they would be entirely at the mercy of the US and the USSR. The new World Powers. But even in this situation they could not agree in the Hague Congress in 1948 on establishing a Federal Union. The Council of Europe established by the London Treaty of 1949 had no power at all. The problem was: how to act together but without losing sovereignty and independence. It was a squaring the circle type of situation. 

                                                                                                             Jean Monnet (1888-1979)

When Europeans had almost lost hope about the possibility that their states could together for being part of the post-war World one man changed all this. Jean Monnet. A pragmatist that hadn’t even finished his high school and became essentially a businessman with a large international experience. He was above all a daring man that did not hesitate when he was 26 years old to get to the French President Poincaré in the middle of World War I and convinced him to restructure the Allies Transportation System. This international French man with no academic background became a counsellor for Chiang Kai Schek, Churchill, F.D. Roosevelt or De Gaulle, among others. He had an important role in the League of Nations, on the Allied victory in World War II and in the European reconstruction after 1945.  After the Hague Congress failure Monnet realized that political union of the European nation-states was impossible. But according to the precedent of the Marshall Plan he thought that for economic reasons it could be possible to find a common ground of interest. And he found one.

                                                                                                       Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967)

The beginning of the Cold War with the Berlin Blockade by Stalin  (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) decided the Allies to create The German Federal Republic on May 23, 1949, and in October 7, of the same year Stalin pushed to the foundation of the German Democratic Republic. The problem for Germans was to avoid another Versaille’s Effect. Something that Jean Monnet understood well. This is why he proposed to the head of the new GFR, Konrad Adenuaer (1876-1967) to integrate the regions of the Ruhr and the Saar (Germany) and Alsace and Lorraine (French), bases of European coal and steel production, into a community that would encompass French and German production, although it was to be open to more states.

                                                                                                           Robert Schuman (1886-1963)

Monnet nevertheless needed now to convince the French government. And here he was lucky because he was able to convince Robert Schuman (1886-1963) the French Minister of Foreign Affairs An able politician that was half German and half French, and above all an extremely lucid fellow. The fact that he was politically on the same ideological side of Adenauer helped considerably. This set of circumstances led to the Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1950. The starting shot of the European Integration system. 

This week I will ask you to start with getting familiar with the personal circumstances of Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman (pages 259-262). But it would be great if you could google them, preferably in English and make a short note about their lives and their responsibility on launching the European integration process. 

The second step would be to read carefully The Schuman Declaration https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/doc/questions-d-europe/qe-204-en.pdf, helping yourself with the explanation you will find in pages 262-264. This is the stepping stone of the European integration movement as it contains the main points and the spirit of what was going to be called the Community Method. This is why the 9 of May is the day of Europe. 

Finally I will ask you to compare the two visions that converged on the Schuman Declaration. Find out what was Jean Monnet’s idea (The Monnet Plan, pages 264-265) and how Robert Schuman was able to open up the political way for achieving it (pages 265-266).

Help yourself looking at the Chronology (which is very short, on page 267). The dates you have to remember are: Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman dates of birth and death. Remember the Hague’s Congress, the Berlin Blockade, the creation of NATO, the foundation of GFD and GDR, and of course the day that the Schuman Declaration was read. 

Then understand your concepts and try to answer the questions concerning the two texts of the Teaching Guide: 10.1 and 10.2 (pages 269-270). And you will be set and ready for TG 11, in order to find out how the Schuman Declaration aims were achieved through the foundation of different European Communities. 

                                                                                                Monnet and Schuman on May 9, 1950