Orchestrating Europe (Text Only). Keith Middlemas

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СКАЧАТЬ that de Gaulle had no desire whatsoever to share French leadership of the Six with Britain.

      This placed the Macmillan government in an extremely difficult position. Speculation in the press and business circles had already anticipated an announcement on Britain and Europe. Thus, rather than make an open commitment to EEC membership, it was decided to open negotiations with the Six to see whether suitable arrangements could be made. It was hoped that this fine distinction would put an end to public uncertainty, and keep Britain’s options open in Europe. The formal announcement was made in the House of Commons on 31 July 1961.⁸

      The three major problem areas of negotiation with Brussels were the Commonwealth, EFTA, and British agriculture. In each case, Britain held outstanding commitments which, in the absence of special arrangements, were incompatible with EEC membership. The negotiations that opened in October 1961 proceeded extremely slowly due to a mutual unwillingness to offer concessions. It was not until May 1962 that the first specific agreement was reached on Commonwealth industrial goods. By the end of July, arrangements for most Commonwealth countries had virtually been finalized, although these often fell short of Commonwealth demands. However, it was the issue of agriculture which finally brought the negotiations into deadlock. The British system of guaranteed prices and deficiency payments to farmers was manifestly incompatible with the artificially inflated prices of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Disagreement on the best means to reconcile the two dragged on into December 1962, when the EEC Commission appointed a committee under the direction of Commission vice-president, Sicco Mansholt, to explore possible solutions.

      In the meantime, de Gaulle had become increasingly concerned about the political consequences of British membership. Although Macmillan was aware of these views, neither he nor any of the delegations in Brussels anticipated de Gaulle’s unilateral statement, at a press conference on 14 January 1963, that Britain was not yet ready for the full commitment of EEC membership and that therefore there was no point in prolonging the negotiations. De Gaulle referred to the deal with the United States on Polaris nuclear weapons as evidence of Britain’s ‘special links’ outside the Community structure. However, it is now clear that such objections were used to mask underlying fears of a British challenge to French leadership of the Six. The veto came as a monumental blow to British aspirations in continental Europe and the wider world. It also generated considerable illwill and mistrust between the Six, which in turn impaired the prospects of further political initiatives. Finally, it also served to repudiate the approaches of other states for membership or association with the EEC.

      The applications of Denmark, Norway and Ireland⁹ for EEC membership had been essentially a reaction to Macmillan’s decision to negotiate with the Six. Denmark was the strongest supporter of this decision, as it provided the opportunity to bring its two largest customers, the United Kingdom and West Germany, together in a single market. The breakdown of the British negotiations was crucial to the Danish position. Although de Gaulle had offered prime-minister Otto Jens Krag membership for Denmark separately, this was turned down after consultations with the British.

      Norway was somewhat less enthusiastic in applying for EEC membership. Einar Gerhardsen’s goverment was uneasy about opening Norwegian fisheries and agriculture to foreign competition but the simultaneous application of important trading partners like Denmark and Britain led many to the view that Norway could not afford to remain outside. Before any application could be made, the constitution had to be amended to provide for the transfer of sovereign powers to an international organization. This amendment was passed without difficulty by the Storting in March 1962, followed soon after by the EEC announcement opening negotiations. Only one meeting at ministerial level had taken place, however, when the collapse of the UK application brought the Norwegian case to an equally abrupt end.

      Ireland’s membership application was perhaps even more closely linked with that of the United Kingdom. Ireland had not taken part in the EEC/EFTA split of the late 1950s, but had special trading arrangements with Britain dating back to the time when it formed part of the United Kingdom. Edward Heath specifically mentioned Ireland in his opening speech to the EEC governments in October 1961, expressing the hope that their trading relationship would be ‘subsumed in the wider arrangements of the enlarged Community’. The EEC Council of Ministers signalled the start of negotiations with Ireland in October 1962 but, as in the case of Norway, substantial negotiations never actually opened.

      The return of de Gaulle to power in France on 1 June 1958 was decisive for the EEC’s development. Given his long antipathy towards the integration efforts of the Six, nobody expected him to look favourably upon the new supranational organization emerging in Brussels. After all, he viewed France’s participation in the ECSC, the EEC and EURATOM as the humiliating policies of a previous regime ‘more concerned with pleasing others’. Thus it was with considerable relief that ‘Europeanists’ saw his early recognition of the Rome Treaties. In part, this reflected the support in French industrial and especially agrarian circles for the EEC. It also marked an appreciation of the usefulness of the Treaty, and its safeguards, for the liberalization of the French economy upon which the regime embarked at the end of 1958. However, it soon became evident that the General had his own concept of ‘Europe’ which differed markedly from the federalist ideal.

      At a press conference in May 1960, de Gaulle launched his proposals to develop political cooperation among the Six. He announced his intention ‘to build western Europe into a political, economic, cultural and human grouping organised for action and self-defence … through organised cooperation between states, with the expectation of perhaps growing one day into an imposing confederation’. The use of the phrase ‘une cooperation organisée des Etats’ was particularly significant and reflected a desire to ensure that any future political integration of the Six would not be at the expense of French national sovereignty. De Gaulle obtained the support of Adenauer for this position on 29 July at a meeting at Rambouillet. Central to the plan was the establishment of a permanent political secretariat of the Six in Paris, responsible to a Council of the Heads of Government. It would comprise four permanent directorates; dealing with foreign policy, defence, economics and cultural affairs. There would also be an assembly of delegates from the national parliaments.¹⁰

      The scheme ran into strong opposition from federalists such as Walter Hallstein and Paul-Henri Spaak who feared that the inclusion of defence and economics within the competence of the new organization would tend to undermine both NATO and the existing Economic Community in Brussels. These problems were discussed by the heads of government of the Six in Bonn in July 1961. The outcome of the meeting was the ‘Bonn Declaration’, which tried to allay doubts about the plan by including references to political union as a means for ‘strengthening the Atlantic Alliance’ as well as an affirmation of the intention to ‘continue at the same time the work already undertaken in the European Communities’. However, the Declaration had been cleverly drafted to conceal the many points of disagreement, and the illusion of consensus proved to be short lived.

      The preparatory work was entrusted to a new commission, chaired by the French ambassador to Denmark, Christian Fouchet. Its brief was to submit ‘concrete proposals concerning meetings of the heads of state and the ministers of foreign affairs, as well as all other meetings that might appear desirable’. In November, the French government presented a draft Traité d’union d’Etats which became known as the Fouchet Plan. The Fouchet Plan adhered firmly to de Gaulle’s earlier position and, as such, represented some backsliding from the text of the Bonn Declaration. Most notably, the draft treaty included the key issues of defence and economics within the scope of the Political Union, despite the earlier protests by France’s partners. Negotiations among the Six on the Fouchet Plan commenced in early 1962, with numerous redrafts of the treaty submitted by the Five. However, as the negotiations progressed, a further point of disagreement emerged among the Six, over the issue of British participation in the Fouchet negotiations.

      At this time, simultaneous negotiations were being held in Brussels on Britain’s application to the EEC. The Dutch, in particular, were adamant that the UK should also be included in the discussions on political СКАЧАТЬ