A missed opportunity of supranationalism? The drafting of European political authority in the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1949–51

ABSTRACT

This article examines postwar supranational parliamentarism by focusing on the political role of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe. While the historical significance of the Assembly has been re-investigated, less attention has been given to the political role of the parliamentary body of the Council in the framework of political theorizing of postwar parliamentarism. Neither has the parliamentary role of the Assembly been much discussed in studies about European integration. It is often argued that as the Consultative Assembly was given merely a deliberative role, without legislative or executive powers, it bears less political significance. Contrary to this view, our article shows, how after the founding of the Council of Europe in 1948, the limited powers of the Assembly were renegotiated, and the representatives tried to challenge the ‘consultative’ role of the body particularly in the framework of the drafting of the so-called ‘European political authority’ in 1949–51. By analyzing the minutes of plenary sessions and committee reports, we turn our attention to the views and arguments presented by contemporaries and argue that there was a missed opportunity for the Assembly to become supranational that could have potentially influenced the course of the European integration.

KEYWORDS:

• Council of Europe
• Consultative Assembly
• parliament
• supranationalism
• federalism
• functionalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For this type of scholarship, see especially, N. Kauppi & K. Palonen (eds), Rhetoric and Bricolage in European Politics and Beyond: The Political Mind in Action (Cham, 2022).

2 Kauppi & Palonen (eds), Introduction, Rhetoric and Bricolage, p. 2.

3 For instance, S. Guerrieri ‘From the Hague Congress to the Council of Europe: Hopes, Achievements and Disappointments in the Parliamentary Way to European Integration (1948–51)’, Parliaments, Estates & Representation 34, (2014), pp. 216–27; T. Häkkinen ‘British Parliamentary Attitudes towards a Supranational Parliament and the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1948–49’, Parliaments, Estates & Representation 38, (2018), pp. 63–75; B. Wassenberg, History of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, 2013).

4 P.A. Jordan ‘Does Membership Have its Privileges?: Entrance into the Council of Europe and Compliance with Human Rights Norms’, Human Rights Quarterly 25, (2013), pp. 660–88.

5 Guerrieri, ‘From the Hague’, p. 217. On European integration and the Council of Europe, see, for instance, A. Macmullen, ‘Intergovernmental Functionalism? The Council of Europe in European Integration’, Journal of European Integration 26, (2004), pp. 405–29.

6 On the politics related to the founding of the Council of Europe, see, for instance F. Niess, Die europäische Idee. Aus dem Geist des Widerstands (Frankfurt am Main, 2000).

7 The Statute of the Council of Europe, 5 May 1949.

8 Wassenberg, History of the Council of Europe, p. 24.

9 K. Sithole. ‘Council of Europe, Rights and Political Authority’, European Review 21, (2013), p. 121.

10 B. Habegger, ‘Democratic Accountability of International Organizations: Parliamentary Control within the Council of Europe and the OSCE and the Prospects for the United Nations’, Cooperation and Conflict 45, (2010), pp. 186–204.

11 Wassenberg, The History of the Council of Europe, pp. 22–4.

12 See Kauppi & Palonen, Introduction, Rhetoric and Bricolage, pp. 1–10.

13 M. Burgess, Federalism and the European Union: The Building of Europe, 1950–2000 (London, 2000); C. Navari, ‘Functionalism Versus Federalism: Alternative Visions of European Unity’, in P. Murray and P. Rich (eds), Visions of European Unity (Boulder, 1996) pp. 63–91; Macmullen, ‘Intergovernmental Functionalism?’

14 See, for instance, Q. Skinner, Visions of Politics. Vol. 1, Regarding Method (Cambridge, 2002); C. Wiesner, T. Haapala & K. Palonen, Debates, Rhetoric and Political Action: Practices of Textual Interpretation in Political Analysis (London, 2017); K. Palonen, ‘Towards a History of Parliamentary Concepts’, Parliaments, Estates & Representation 32, (2012), pp. 123–38.

15 The sources studied have been accessed via the digital archives of the Council of Europe, available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/documents-records-archives-information.

16 Guerrieri, ‘From the Hague’, p. 244.

17 Wassenberg, The History of the Council of Europe, p. 27.

18 See Häkkinen, ‘British Parliamentary Attitudes’, p. 64.

19 B. Rittberger, Building Europe’s Parliament. Democratic Representation beyond the Nation-State (Oxford, 2005), p. 1.

20 P. Ihalainen, C. Ilie & K. Palonen, ‘Parliament as a Conceptual Nexus’, in P. Ihalainen, C. Ilie and K. Palonen (eds), Parliament and Parliamentarism. A Comparative History of a European Concept (New York, 2016). For the interpretation of this conceptual nexus to the Consultative Assembly, see Häkkinen, ‘British Parliamentary Attitudes’.

21 For an analysis of the British domestic debates and the various political positions for European representative assembly in the country, see T. Haapala, ‘Saving European Democracy: British Debates on European Unification in 1948–49’, in N. Kauppi & K. Palonen (eds), Rhetoric and Bricolage in European Politics and Beyond, pp. 59–88.

22 Motion proposed by Mr. Ruini [Italy]. Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, First Session, Sixth sitting, 17 August 1949, pp. 124–5.

23 This finding completely corresponds with the results of the analysis on British debates in 1948–49, as shown in Haapala, ‘Saving European Democracy’, especially pp. 71–9.

24 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, First Session, Sixth sitting, 17 August 1949, p. 129.

25 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, First Session, Thirteenth sitting, 2 September 1949, p. 93.

26 Consultative Assembly, Committee on General Affairs, Second Session, Study of Changes in the Political Structure of Europe, with the aim of creating a closer unit[sic] between the Members of the Council of Europe. Analysis submitted by Monsieur Guy Mollet, Rapporteur of the Committee on General Affairs, 1949, p. 4.

27 Consultative Assembly, Committee on General Affairs, Fourth Session, Preparatory report submitted by Guy Mollet, 8 June 1950, p. 4.

28 Wassenberg, The History of the Council of Europe, p. 27.

29 Committee on General Affairs 1949, p. 4.

30 Committee on General Affairs 1949, p. 4.

31 Consultative Assembly, Committee on General Affairs, Third Session, Report of the Committee on General Affairs, Submitted by Mr Mackay, Prepared Pursuant to the Resolution of the Assembly passed in August 1949, 1950, p. 1.

32 Committee on General Affairs 1950, p. 28.

33 Committee on General Affairs 1949, pp. 6–7.

34 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17 August 1950, p. 342.

35 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17 August 1950, p. 362.

36 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17August 1950, p. 720.

37 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17 August 1950, p. 343.

38 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17 August 1950, p. 350.

39 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Twelfth Sitting, 17 August 1950, p. 352.

40 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 726.

41 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 732.

42 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 732.

43 For a discussion of Churchill’s alternative European policy to that of the Labour government, see Haapala, ‘Saving European Democracy’, pp. 63–5.

44 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 734.

45 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 736.

46 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, Thirteenth Sitting, 18 August 1950, p. 746.

47 Consultative Assembly, Documents, working Papers, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes in the Political Structure of Europe Necessary to Achieve a Greater Unity between the Members of the Council of Europe and to bring about Effective Co-operation in the Various Fields Specified in Article 1 of the Statute’, 7 August 1950, p. 383.

48 Consultative Assembly, Third Session, Committee on General Affairs, Observations on the Development of European Unity, 17 September 1951, p. 1.

49 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 384

50 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 383.

51 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 390.

52 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 375.

53 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 399.

54 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 375.

55 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, 20th Sitting, 28 August 1950, p. 1114, 1116.

56 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, 21st Sitting, 28 August 1950, p. 1174.

57 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 398.

58 Statute of the Council of Europe, Article 23.

59 Consultative Assembly, Second Session, Committee on General Affairs, ‘Report Relative to the Changes’, p. 387.

60 Consultative Assembly, Reports, Second Session, 20th Sitting, 28 August 1950 , p. 1126.

61 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, ‘Third Report Relative to the Changes in the Political Structure of Europe Necessary to Achieve a Greater Unity between the Members of the Council of Europe and to bring about Effective Co-operation in the Various Fields Specified in Article 1 of the Statute’, 22 November 1950, p. 1188.

62 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, ‘Resolution Relating to a Protocol Amending the Statute of the Council of Europe’, p. 1197.

63 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, ‘Protocol for the Amendment of the Statute of the Council of Europe’, pp. 1200, 1203.

64 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, ‘Motion Relative to the Alteration of the Statute with a View to Achieving Some Effective and Concrete Definition of the Consultative Function of the Assembly’, 23 November 1950, pp. 1241–7.

65 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, Third Session, ‘Changes in the Political Structure of Europe Necessary to Achieve Closer Unity between the Members of the Council of Europe and to Bring about Effective Co-operation in the Various Fields Specified in Article 1 of the Statute. Report on Constitutional Questions’, 26 November 1951, pp. 740–3.

66 Consultative Assembly, ‘Changes in the Political Structure’, p. 743.

67 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, ‘Draft New Statute of the Council of Europe’, 26 November 1951, pp. 753–4, 756, 764.

68 Consultative Assembly, Documents, Working Papers, Third Session, ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy. Report on the Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, 26 November 1951, pp. 779–80.

69 ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, p. 787.

70 ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, p. 781.

71 ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, p. 789.

72 ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, p. 782.

73 ‘Aims and Prospects of European Policy’, p. 788.

74 Wassenberg, History of the Council of Europe, p. 30.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanna-Mari Kivistö

Hanna-Mari Kivistö is University Teacher in Political Science at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation studied debates related to the right to asylum and her postdoctoral project focused on politics of human rights. Her research interests also include democracy and parliamentarism, conceptual history and politics of language.

Taru Haapala

Taru Haapala is Senior Research Fellow funded by the Tomás y Valiente Fellowship programme at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, and Adjunct Professor in Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests range from EU politicization to the political theory of parliamentarism. Her recent publications include Tracing the Politicisation of the EU: The Future of Europe Debates Before and After the 2019 Elections (Cham, 2022) co-edited with A. Oleart.