Abstract
In 1949, it seemed that Western governments were ready to accept some delegation of sovereignty, which met the ambitions of increasingly well-organised Europeanists. One of the most ambitious advances was the proposal for a European Assembly, which could have heralded the beginning of an integration process. However, on this point, as on many others, there was not total agreement between the unionists and the federalists: for some, the Assembly was simply a co-operation structure, while others thought it should be a constituent body. The federalists—who had been united since December 1946 within the European Union of Federalists (EUF), which claimed to have no fewer than 150,000 members—were very demanding. After the adoption of the Statute of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949, the EUF Central Committee approved a “motion on the Consultative Assembly” in which it openly demanded the drafting of a federal pact that would lead to real European power. Faced with the modest intergovernmental status of the Council of Europe, the EUF proposed that the Assembly of this Council should be transformed from a “consultative” to a “constituent” assembly, which amounted to condemning any kind of conciliatory attitude. Therefore, the constituent path was becoming more and more important within the federalist organisation: it was now a matter of pressing, without restraint, for the triumph of ideals freed from initial reluctance, in the most diverse forums. The most important of these remained the Council of Europe, which was, in the eyes of the federalists, an institution that could be improved. Defending an integrated Europe, the federalists called for the creation of a democratic power on the scale of the challenges of the time, which seemed to them to exceed that of the nation states. To achieve this, they defended a “political” vision of integration, of which the Council of Europe could be the spearhead. It is this struggle, which took place at a time when the construction of Europe seems to be based on a simple but firm act of will, that this article will examine.
Highlights
Three years after the end of the war, Western governments seemed ready to make major concessions to the Europeanists in response to the various demands expressed at the end of the Hague Congress (7–10 May 1948) 1 [1,2,3,4,5]
The atmosphere in the federalist ranks was gradually changing as they became aware that their appeal was unlikely to be heard. It was in this context that the call for a European Constitution was presented by a delegation of European Council of Vigilance (ECV) members to the president of the Consultative Assembly, Paul-Henri Spaak, at the end of the second session, with the aim of “making parliamentarians face up to their responsibilities” 53 [20]
The idea of a Constituent Assembly remained, but this was outside the framework of the Strasbourg assembly 68. It was Altiero Spinelli who won support, when he envisaged no longer relying on the Council of Europe and proposed an initial union between those states in favour of a European Constitution
Summary
Three years after the end of the war, Western governments seemed ready to make major concessions to the Europeanists in response to the various demands expressed at the end of the Hague Congress (7–10 May 1948) 1 [1,2,3,4,5]. The main goal was to create a genuine European democracy (albeit limited to the West) in a context that fostered enthusiasm for the project: states that still seemed weak shortly after the war would be obliged to find solutions through greater co-operation while the growing threat to the East suggested a need for urgent action. In this sense, the Council of Europe was the first European organisation to have a parliamentary body and the objective of closer union between members was enshrined in its Statute. We will look at how this struggle was conducted in the early days of the Council of Europe; a struggle between the hopes raised by its creation and the radicalisation that the Cold War soon brought to the process of European construction
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