[1945-1951] Towards a European Community: The second golden age of europeanism

"It is time to build Europe." Georges Bidault.

After the great disruptions engendered by the second world conflict, the European idea knew what we can call a second golden age¹. The years 1946-1949 were decisive for europeanism: this time, the project was finally going to be realised, under the auspices of the USA and of its British allied, afters two decades of militancy.

The europeanist project was revived by Winston Churchill, who delivered one of his most important speech at the University of Zurich the 19 September 1946². Remaining faithful to his paneuropean commitment, he urged the nations of the continent to create a pacific federation that would prevent all risk of war. According to him, building the "United States of Europe" was the only way, for all the Europeans, "to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living." The old lion even advocated a globalist order, against all the nationalist passions, pleading for the development of the UN in a federalist framework. 

Winston Churchill's speech at the 

University of Zurich :

George Marshall (1880-1959)

Like his friend Coudenhove-Kalergi, Churchill did not want Great Britain to join the "United States of Europe": he thought that the British Empire should bridge the gap between America and Europe. Besides, as we have said, the USA supported the European integration, driven with the willingness to contain Soviet Russia. This support took the form of a financial assistance, as promised by Harry Truman at the start of 1947: in June of this year, the US Secretary of States George Marshall proposed, in agreement with the Truman administration, an ambitious four years Recovery Programme amounting to thirteen billions of dollar. After several weeks of negotiations and bargaining, this programme gave birth to a first European association in April 1948: the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), jointly founded by the «Marshall Plan» recipients. Admittedly, it was not the start of a European federation, but it was a first step towards the economic cooperation.

The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC)  in 1948.

In the same time, all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe became "popular democracies" completely subservient to the government of Moscow: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland were all submitted to the Soviet power through the Cominform³. Only Yugoslavia, which freed itself from the German yoke without the help of the Red Army, managed to maintain its political sovereignty. In Germany, two States were created in the years 1948-1949: the Federal Republic in the Western part, and the Democratic Republic in the Eastern part. The first one was intended to be a pillar of the future European community whereas the second was nothing but a USSR Satellite.

The division of Europe in 1949.

At the end of the 1940's, while Stalin extended his influence at the East of the "iron curtain", the elites of the "free World" decided to reinforced the Western bloc. The context was therefore favourable to the development of europeanism, which was not only a mean to put an end to wars, but also a geopolitical weapon against the Soviet sphere. This is the reason why, in the years 1946-1947, many europeanist movements were founded, grouping together intellectuals, parliamentarians, economic and political leaders. These movements expressed several orientations: some were simply "unionist", defending a Europe of nations, other were federalist and aimed for the edification of a European State. The most important of them, whether they were unionist, like the United Europe Movement, or federalist, like the Union of Federalist Europeans, played a significant role in the organisation of the Hague Congress in May 1948. Under the patronage of Winston Churchill, almost 800 delegates from seventeen countries of the continent took part of it, including great figures such as Konrad Adenauer, Harold Macmillan, Paul Reynaud, Édouard Daladier, Paul van Zeeland, Altiero Spinelli or Salvador de Madariaga. In the name of realism, the unionist vision prevailed at the outcome of the debates: Europe will be intergovernmental or it will not be.

In the wake of the Hague Congress, the Council of Europe was created by the Treaty of London on 5 May 1949. Its first members were Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It was not a federal institution but a sort of think tank, which aim was "to achieve a greater unity between its members" and to facilitate their "economic and social progress". The Council of Europe was at the origins of the European Convention on Human Rights and of the European Court of Human Rights, both instituted in the early 1950's.

Thus, the way was paved for the constitution of a united Europe. If the federation was not on the agenda, the main countries of Western Europe were ready for economic integration.

1See our article "The first golden age of europeanism": http://history-of-europeanism.blogspot.fr/2013/10/1918-1939-european-idea-during-interwar.html

2To read the speech: http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/astonish.html 

3The Cominform, "Communist Information Bureau", was an organisation founded in September 1947 by USSR in order to control the Eastern bloc.