Step by Step Integration: The Invention of the “Community Method” (1950)
18.5.1 The Pioneers: Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman
After the failure of the federal formula some “integrationists” sought a solution so that, despite British opposition, the principle of supranationality would prevail, at least in certain areas.
The key players behind this partial solution were two Frenchmen: Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman.18.5.1.1 The Dazzling Career of Jean Monnet
Jean Monnet (1888-1979) never went to college. He was not a theorist, but a pragmatist. His father was a businessman who frequently travelled with his son to London, and especially the United States. As a result he developed an international spirit and extensive experience in business negotiations. However, Monnet would go down in history thanks to his achievements in the field of international politics.
It all started in 1914, at the outbreak of World War I. Monnet was 26 years old and exempted from military service for health reasons. Though he never fought he did participate in the war in a decisive way. His constant travels between France and England allowed him to observe how troops and military material were transported from Britain to the Continent. A lucid Monnet realized that there was a total lack of coordination between the French and British fleets, and conceived the idea for all transport operations to be run jointly. Monnet was bold, not hesitating to request an appointment with the President of the French Republic, Raymond Poincare, who he managed to convince to create the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, with full powers to organize the transport of troops and supplies (Fransen 2006, 23-27). The initiative was a resounding success, and contributed decisively to tipping the balance in favor of the Allies during the last months of the war. Jean Monnet proved to everyone that organization was the key to victory.
Monnet’s success earned him a special prestige in the international arena, which led to him being appointed Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations (Duchene 1994, 41).
Monnet had little interest in titles and honors, however. When he concluded that the League of Nations was ineffectual because the sovereign states were unwilling to subject themselves to the principle of supranationality, he resigned from his post in 1923 and returned home to take over the family business.[1202]He took an interest in international politics again in 1936 when he realized that Hitler was bent on another war. It was then when he decided to make every effort to
keep the democratic nations from being defeated by totalitarianism. Statesmen continued to rely on him. In 1938 France’s Prime Minister Edouard Daladier asked him to secretly buy warplanes from the United States (Fransen 2006, 68). This was a prickly task because the U.S. government’s Neutrality Act prohibited the sale of weapons to any belligerent nation. Monnet, however, convinced Roosevelt not only to allow the sale of the planes, but also to make him part of the president’s brain trust, thereby making the Frenchman the most influential European in the United States.
However, Monnet was still worried about his native Europe. In June of 1940, after France’s military collapse, he was decisive in convincing Churchill and De Gaulle to create an indissoluble union between the United Kingdom and France, which failed when Marshall Petain signed an armistice with the Nazis. Churchill then sent him as his representative to the United States to convince the Americans to produce armaments for the Allies. Once again Monnet brought Roosevelt around to his point of view, persuading him that America must become “the arsenal of democracy” (Nathan 1991, 72). The results of this policy were spectacular: 300,000 aircraft, 100,000 tanks, and 124,000 warships were produced by American factories for use in Europe and the Pacific. According to the prestigious English economist John Maynard Keynes, Jean Monnet’s efforts reduced the duration of the war by one full year (Ugland 2011, 67).
After Germany’s defeat Monnet committed himself to the reconstruction of Europe, beginning with his native France. To do so he dealt with General De Gaulle, but only became effective after being appointed the General Commissioner of the Marshall Plan, a position to which he was appointed by President Truman himself.[1203] During his time at this post he came to realize to what extent Europe’s resurgence depended upon breaking down its borders. A pragmatist first and foremost, Monnet eschewed grandiose theoretical statements and decided to concentrate his efforts on promoting the principle of “supranationality” in Europe with regards to a specific point. Defeated Germany served as a testing ground and platform for him to put his idea into practice.
The confrontation with the Soviet bloc raised the need to incorporate West Germany into the anti-Communist bloc, prompting the Allies to back the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany on May 23, 1949. On this basis Jean Monnet had the idea of integrating 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 (Gillingham 1991, 129-162). Monnet’s idea was received with enthusiasm by German President Konrad Adenauer, who saw in it a way to prevent a potential “Versailles Effect” by placing a defeated Germany on an equal footing with France in the constitution of a supranational entity binding upon both states.[1204]
Apparently modest in its objective, Monnet’s Coal and Steel Community was revolutionary in terms of its method: the freely consented cession of sovereignty in certain and decisive sectors to common and independent institutions (Community Method).
To carry out his plan, however, Jean Monnet needed political support, and Robert Schuman was just the man to give it to him.
18.5.1.2 Robert Schuman, the Most German of Frenchmen
Robert Schuman (1886-1963) was born in Luxembourg but spent his childhood and youth in Germany. He studied in Berlin, Munich, Metz, Bonn, and Strasbourg, a German city since 1871. During World War I, as he did not physically qualify for military service, he served the Second Reich in the War Administration (Bitsch 2010, 19).[1205] Living in Metz after the Treaty of Versailles (1919), he became a French citizen,[1206] soon entered politics, and managed to be elected to the French National Assembly.[1207] Politically he was a conservative but above all a pragmatic realist, with great expertise in financial matters. After World War II[1208] he became a minister and then Prime Minister under the Fourth French Republic. Under these conditions, a union between France and Germany seemed to him an excellent idea.
If Jean Monnet had the idea, Schuman can be credited with implementing it politically, a task at which he received the support of other European politicians, such as the German Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Joseph Bech (1887-1975) of Luxembourg, and the Italian Alcide de Gasperi (1881-1954).
18.5.2 The Schuman Declaration of May 9,1950
In the spring of 1950, a new government was formed in France in which Robert Schuman was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. From his position, he was able to convince the French cabinet of the merits of Monnet’s plans, and received permission to hold a press conference on May 9, 1950. The result was the Schuman Declaration, which laid a cornerstone in the construction of a united Europe (Dinan 2014, 37-45).[1209]
The Declaration (Schuman 2011, 1-3) first proposed a method for the construction of a common Europe: concrete achievements that first create real solidarity.[1210] The first tangible achievement was going to be built on the basis of the Franco- German union (Milward 2013,126-140)[1211] “on one limited but decisive point...that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole be placed under a common High Authority”.
According to the Declaration this concrete action had three main objectives:
The common cause resulting from the joint implementation of coal and steel production was aimed, firstly, at preventing confrontation between regions which had long been dedicated to the manufacturing of weapons, of which they themselves had been the first victims. The objective, essentially, was to demonstrate that the shared production thus created would show that any war between France and Germany was not only unthinkable, but also materially impossible.[1212]
Secondly, the pooling of coal and steel was seen as a tool for economic development, as it ensured the merging of markets and the expansion of production through the modernization of production and the improvement of its quality. The provisioning of coal and steel under conditions identical to the French market and the German markets, and to those of member countries, would assure the development of common exports to other countries, giving equal opportunities and improving living conditions for workers in these industries.[1213] This was all to be achieved while respecting free market rules.[1214]
Thirdly, the new organization was to be the first stage of a European federation because subjecting the production of coal and steel to a common authority was something open to all other European countries wishing to participate in it:
The setting up of this powerful productive unit, open to all countries willing to take part and bound ultimately to provide all the member countries with the basic elements of industrial production on the same terms, will lay a true foundation for their economic unification [...] In this way, there will be realized simply and speedily that fusion of interest which is indispensable to the establishment of a common economic system; it may be the leaven from which may grow a wider and deeper community between countries long opposed to one another by sanguinary divisions.
By pooling basic production and by instituting a new High Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and other member countries, this proposal will lead to the realization of the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace.Finally, the Declaration stipulated how France and Germany were to proceed to submit the production of Coal and Steel to a High Authority independent of their respective governments:
First, it was stipulated that, legally, the concrete transfer of sovereignty was to be incorporated into a treaty as a way to bind the member states.[1215] Secondly the “High
Authority” was to be fully independent from the member states so its decisions would have executive force in the signatory states:
The common High Authority entrusted with the management of the scheme will be composed of independent persons appointed by the governments, giving equal representation. A chairman will be chosen by common agreement between the governments. The Authority’s decisions will be enforceable in France, Germany and other member countries. Appropriate measures will be provided for means of appeal against the decisions of the Authority.
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