Abstract

The formal and informal network-type cooperation among continental European Christian democrats, this chapter argues, played a crucial role in the integration of the ‘core Europe’ of the six founding member states of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) created in 1951–52 and the European Economic Community (EEC) formed in 1957–58. Integration in coal and steel did not lead directly to horizontal integration in the customs union of the EEC. However, the decision for the ECSC in this form created crucial path dependencies for core dimensions of western European integration after 1945, with long-term repercussions up to the present day. These core dimensions were the (self-) exclusion of the United Kingdom (UK) from integration; the introduction of the supranational principle after the intergovernmental solutions of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) formed in 1948 and the Council of Europe created in 1949; and functional economic integration with political as well as economic objectives, especially fostering Franco-German reconciliation and cooperation.

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