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ABSTRACT
The European Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC) has occupied a major role in the organization of European economic cooperation, but it has often been overlooked by historians. Drawing on recent literature as well as on an exploration of the Commission’s archives (and the national archives of the three largest member-states), this contribution aims to examine the three visions developed by this institution to tackle the crisis of capitalism between 1967 and 1985. Some commissioners, such as the Dutchman Hendrikus (Henk) Vredeling, fostered a social agenda, aimed at favouring the redistribution of wealth in Europe, and the protection of the weakest. Others, such as the Belgian Etienne Davignon, defended a neo-mercantilist approach in order to maximize European industrial output. And still others, such as the Frenchman Raymond Barre, defended market-based solutions. In 1985, Delors became President of the Commission and put forward a new synthesis of those three approaches. With this threefold structure (social, neo-mercantilist and market-oriented), this article advances three claims. First, it will demonstrate that the Commission was not a monolithic actor, but rather divided along many competing lines. Second, it will show that some prominent commissioners developed their own economic agenda, which was sometimes separate from that of their country’s governments. Third, this article will circumvent the current dominant teleological narrative, which ascribes a neoliberal streak to the entire history of European integration, and accomplish this by showing that the Treaty of Rome may be interpreted in varied ways. The neo-mercantilist category is useful to show that many actors were unconvinced by market-based regulations, without being socialists or social democrats. In sum, this contribution aims to explore the full range of economic solutions envisioned to overcome economic crises.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Gillingham, European Integration; Hobsbawn, Age of Extremes; and Judt, Postwar.
2. Apart from the large multi-authored ‘History of the Commission’ (Bussière et al., ed., The European Commission, 1973–1986), this article will take into account recent PhDs (Andry, “Social Europe”; Chenard, “The European Community”; Karamouzi, Greece; Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money; Van Laer, “Vers une politique industrielle commune”) as well as other archival-based studies (see Bibliography).
3. More details on the events described in this article can be found in Warlouzet, Governing Europe, which is based on a large collection of archives from national governments, international organizations and transnational societal actors. This article brings further information on European commissioners.
4. Hall and Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism; for a linkage between VoC, international political economy and European integration, see in particular: Fioretos, Creative Reconstructions; and Thatcher, Internationalisation.
5. This broader context is already well known, so it will not be addressed in this contribution; see: Hobsbawn, Age of Extremes; Judt, Postwar; and Ruggie, “International Regimes.”
6. More information on other commissioners can be found in the oral archives deposited at the EU Historical archives (available online on the EUI website), in the volumes of the History of the Commission (Dumoulin, History; Bussière et al., The European Commission), and in Van der Harst and Voerman, An Impossible Job?
7. Warlouzet, Le choix de la CEE, 258.
8. Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 194–5 and 201–2.
9. Clavin, “Defining Transnationalism,” 424; and Warlouzet, “European Integration History: Beyond the Crisis,” 16–17.
10. On this typology: Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 6–8 and 25–35.
11. This large definition of a ‘social Europe’ was also the one adopted by several scholars. See: Andry, “Social Europe.”
12. Andry, “Social Europe,” 143.
13. Andry, “Social Europe,” 138–40; and Gobin, “La Confédération.”
14. Mechi and Varsori, “At the Origins”; and Varsori, “The Emergence,” 420–3.
15. Andry, “Social Europe,” 95.
16. Andry, “Social Europe,” 68 and 78; and Steinnes, “The European Turn.”
17. Knudsen, Farmers on Welfare.
18. On the Barre-Mansholt controversy, see Andry, “Social Europe,” 135; Garavini, After Empires, 148–9; and Van Der Harst, “Sicco Mansholt.”
19. Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 39–40.
20. George, An Awkward Partner, 56–7.
21. Rui Martins and Mawson, “The Programming of Regional Development.”
22. EU archives, minutes of the Commission meeting on 1 October 1980.
23. Karamouzi, Greece, 110.
24. This whole section is based mainly on Migani, “Development Aid.”
25. Migani, “Development Aid.”
26. Migani, “Development Aid”; and Garavini, After Empires, 217–18.
27. Migani, “The Road to Cancun.”
28. Migani, “Development Aid,” 403.
29. Andry, “Social Europe,” 305–25; Petrini, “Demanding Democracy”; and Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 67–74.
30. Andry, “Social Europe,” 320.
31. Warlouzet, Le choix de la CEE par la France, 339–418.
32. Warlouzet, Le choix de la CEE par la France, 451–2.
33. EU Oral archives (available on the EUI website), interview of Michel Albert, 18 December 2003; and Servan-Schreiber, The American Challenge.
34. Translation of: ‘Je t’envoie aussi photocopie du discours de Schuman qui montre comme [sic] s’exprime un homme d’Etat qui veut vraiment faire quelque chose’, in: EU archives, AS 270, letter from Spinelli to Ortoli, Florence, Italy, 24 October 1974.
35. Layton, European Advanced Technology; Bussière and van Laer, “Recherche et technologies”; and Van Laer, “Vers une politique industrielle commune.”
36. Grabas and Nützenadel, Industrial Policy.
37. Mechi and Petrini, “La Comunità europea”; EU archives, BDT 118/83/807, “Mémorandum sur la politique industrielle de la Communauté,” doc. SEC (67) 1201 final, 4 July 1967; European Commission, Bulletin of the EC, supplement 4/70; Programme of Industrial and Technology Policy, summary published in: Bulletin Industrie, Recherche et Technologie des Communautés européennes, 188, 1973; Grabas and Nützenadel, Industrial Policy.
38. Van Laer, “Quelle politique industrielle pour l’Europe ?”
39. Mény and Wright, The Politics of Steel; and Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 106–12.
40. European Commission, General objectives. Steel 1990, Com (85) 208 final, 4 June 1985, p. VI/3.
41. Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 87–8.
42. See evidence gathered in German archives in: Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 110–12.
43. German national archives (Foreign Affairs, Berlin) ZW/122.331, note BMWi, 7 March 1978; note AA/412, 26 April 1978; doc. BMWi / AA/ BMF/ BMA, memorandum zur Strukturpolitik in der EG, 24 April 1978.
44. British National Archives, Kew, T 390/283, telex UKREP, European Council of 2 May 1978.
45. Van Laer, “Quelle politique industrielle pour l’Europe?”
46. EU archives, minutes of the Commission meeting, 21 June 1978.
47. Badel and Bussière, François-Xavier Ortoli.
48. Coppolaro, “GATT.”
49. Neuss, Europa mit dem liken Hand? 288–95; Andry, “Social Europe,” 286; EU archives, oral, archives, interview of Franz Forschmaier by Angel Viñas on 4 October 2010.
50. Chenard, “The European Community’s Opening,” 224; and Farrands, “External Relations,” 300–6.
51. EU archives, oral, archives, interview of Peter Sutherland by Laurent Warlouzet on 8 September 2011.
52. There is a large bibliography on the history of European monetary cooperation, but relatively few studies based on primary sources. Exceptions include: James, Making the Monetary Union; Dyson and Maes, Architects; and Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money.
53. Warlouzet, Le choix de la CEE, 259.
54. Schanetzky, Wirtschaftspolitik, 271–3.
55. Howarth, “Raymond Barre”; and Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money, 146.
56. Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money, 205, 239–40.
57. Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money, 184–5; and Ludlow, Roy Jenkins.
58. Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money, 138–41; and Badel and Bussière, François-Xavier Ortoli.
59. On the abortive European Fund: Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 148–9.
60. For more details on the history of EEC competition policy in the 1970s: Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 156–75.
61. Marx, “A European.”
62. For an archival-based account of this debate, see: Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 113–14.
63. Warlouzet, “The Collapse.”
64. EU archives, BAC 91/94/58, note for Narjes, meeting with Andriessen on 12 January 1984; note for Davignon on the Davignon-Andriessen meeting of 2 February 1984.
65. In particular concerning regional aid schemes designed to help zones bordering East Germany, including the VW plant in Wolfsburg: Eckert, “West German.”
66. Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 169–74.
67. Kassim and Stevens, Air Transport.
68. This is the main argument of: Warlouzet, Governing Europe.
69. On Jenkins as a President of the Commission, and on the Jenkins Commission in general, see also Karamouzi, Greece; Ludlow, Roy Jenkins; and Mourlon-Druol, A Europe Made of Money.
70. Warlouzet, Governing Europe, 207–8; for a different vision, see: Gillingham, European Integration.
71. For a short history of the EEC/EU between 1957 and 2007 based on this typology, see the ‘Epilogue’ section of Governing Europe, and in particular the table on pp. 228–9.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Laurent Warlouzet
Laurent Warlouzet is professor of history at the University of Littoral-Côte d’Opale. A former postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute of Florence (EUI), and at the London School of Economics (LSE), he is a specialist in the relationship between Western Europe, European integration and Globalization. He has just published a monograph on this theme: Laurent Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalizing World. Neoliberalism and its Alternatives following the 1973 Oil Crisis (London: Routledge, 2018), and a review essay on EU studies in history: “European Integration History: Beyond the Crisis”, in Politique Européenne 44, no. 2 (2014): 98–122. Website on academia: http://univ-littoral.academia.edu/LaurentWarlouzet