Filling the EEC leadership vacuum? The creation of the European Council in 1974

Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol has a PhD from the European University Institute (Florence) entitled ‘The Emergence of a European Bloc? A Trans- and Supranational History of European Monetary Cooperation, from the Failure of the Werner Plan to the Creation of the European Monetary System, 1974-1979’. His current research explores the role and impact of institutionalised summitry (G7 and European Council) in international relations from the mid-1970s until the late 1980s. He has an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from the Strasbourg Institut d'Études Politiques.

Abstract

This article deals with a significant institutional step in the history of European integration, namely the legally non-binding decision to hold EEC heads of state and government meetings on a regular basis. It will concentrate on the negotiations leading to this decision from mid-1974 until the formal creation of the European Council at the Paris Summit on 9 and 10 December 1974. Drawing upon extensive research in multiple national and EEC archives, this article will embed the analysis of the French initiative in a multilateral context of policy-making and bargaining. It will first try to see to what extent the nine EEC member states shared a common diagnosis about heads of state and government meetings. Then it will delve into the negotiations about the institutionalisation of EEC summits, and finally it will try to explain why, in spite of a number of disagreements, the European Council was eventually created at the Paris Summit. This article will show that the creation of the European Council was more complex than is usually perceived, and highlight wider perennial themes of European integration history.

Acknowledgements

Earlier drafts benefited from the comments and suggestions of the participants and organisers of the RICHIE II conference in Copenhagen. The author would like to thank Harold James, Piers Ludlow, Kiran Patel and Maurice Vaïsse for their comments and support, as well as the two anonymous referees.

Notes

Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol has a PhD from the European University Institute (Florence) entitled ‘The Emergence of a European Bloc? A Trans- and Supranational History of European Monetary Cooperation, from the Failure of the Werner Plan to the Creation of the European Monetary System, 1974-1979’. His current research explores the role and impact of institutionalised summitry (G7 and European Council) in international relations from the mid-1970s until the late 1980s. He has an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from the Strasbourg Institut d'Études Politiques.

  [1] Bulmer and Wessels, The European Council; Werts, The European Council . One may also mention the accounts written in the late 1970s by authors from various backgrounds (journalists, civil servants, political scientists), see for instance Bramsen, ‘Le Conseil européen: son fonctionnement et ses résultats de 1975–1981’; see also a legal study (Taulègne, Le Conseil européen), or some passages in a few memoirs (Monnet, Mémoires, 589–67; Giscard, Pouvoir, 113–5).

  [2] Principally in Werts, European Council, 1–6; Bulmer and Wessels, European Council, 1–7; see also Gerbet, La construction de l'Europe, 432–42; Urwin, The Community of Europe, 164–79; Moravcsik, The Choice, 310–1.

  [3] On the importance of multi-archival, multi-national research, see for instance Ludlow, The European Community, 1–10; or Kaiser, ‘From State to Society?’

  [4] Bitsch, ‘Jean Monnet et la création du Conseil européen’; Fontaine, ‘Le rôle de Jean Monnet dans la genèse du Conseil européen’; Mourlon-Druol, ‘The Creation of the European Council’.

  [5] Even the latest event organised on this topic – the seminar ‘Le septennat de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing et l'Europe’, held in Paris in January 2004 – did not devote proper space to the discussion about the creation of the European Council. See Berstein and Sirinelli, Les années Giscard.

  [6] These archives are in France the Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères (hereafter AMAE), the Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes (hereafter CADN), the archives of the Secrétariat général du Comité interministériel pour les questions de coopération économique européenne (SGCI) in the Centre des Archives contemporaines (hereafter CAC), the Giscard papers in the Centre historique des Archives nationales (hereafter CHAN); in Germany the Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter BAK), Das Politische Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (hereafter PAAA), the Helmut-Schmidt-Archiv in the Archiv der sozialen Demokratie (hereafter AdsD, HSA); in Britain The National Archives (hereafter TNA); and for the EEC the Historical Archives of the European Commission (hereafter HAEC), the Council of Ministers Archives (hereafter CMA) and the Émile Noël papers (hereafter EN) held in the Historical Archives of the European Union (hereafter HAEU).

  [7] Middlemas, Orchestrating Europe, chapter 3: ‘The Stagnant Decade’, 73–110.

  [8] See for instance Knipping and Schönwald, Aufbruch zum Europa der zweiten Generation; and Varsori, Alle origini del presente .

  [9] Kaiser, Leucht and Rasmussen, The History of the European Union. A notable exception to this is Reynolds, Summits.

 [10] Urwin, The Community, 173.

 [11] AMAE, Direction Europe, Série 38, Sous-série 1, Dossier 1, Carton 3790 (hereafter ‘DE 3790’), Direction des affaires politiques, Télégramme circulaire no. 758, 16 October 1974.

 [12] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme no. 3829–45 of Beaumarchais, 30 November 1974.

 [13] CHAN, 5AG3/921, Note pour Monsieur le Président de la République, Gabriel Robin, 18 November 1974; and CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note pour Monsieur Pierre-Brossolette, Robin, 26 November 1974.

 [14] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme no. 4347–4360 of Burin des Roziers, 8 November 1974.

 [15] Urwin, The Community, 174.

 [16] CADN, Bruxelles, 238, Letter Tindemans to Giscard, Telegram no. 1282–96, 9 October 1974.

 [17] Bulmer and Wessels, European Council, 1. On the influence of the creation of the European Council in its early years of existence over the EEC's institutional set-up, see Mourlon-Druol, ‘The Victory of the Intergovernmental Method?’

 [18] The Council of Ministers was even ‘the real problem institution’ of the late 1960s, see Ludlow, The European Community, 184–5.

 [19] TNA, PREM 16/78, Note Tomkins to Wright, Heads of Governments dinner on 14 September and Foreign Ministers' dinner on 16 September, 20 September 1974.

 [20] HAEU, EN 599, Handwritten notes during the informal dinner at the Élysée, 14 September 1974, 18h–24h.

 [21] AMAE, Direction des Affaires économiques et financières (hereafter DAEF) 1043, Note by Louis Hirn, A.S. Propos de Schmidt au sujet de l'Europe au sommet socialiste de La Haye, 4 November 1974.

 [22] Werts, The European Council, 59.

 [23] de Gaulle, Mémoires d'espoir, 206.

 [24] Monnet, Mémoires, 591–2.

 [25] Gabriel Robin, in Cohen and Smouts, La politique extérieure, 119.

 [26] Giscard, Pouvoir, 113. Emphasis added.

 [27] Giscard, Pouvoir, 113. Emphasis added

 [28] Giscard, Pouvoir, 113. Emphasis added, 115. Emphasis added.

 [29] CHAN, 5AG3/921, Note by Robin, 23 August 1974.

 [30] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Notes manuscrites du Président, undated (presumably September 1974).

 [31] Paris and Bonn in 1961, Rome in 1967, The Hague in 1969, Paris in 1972, and Copenhagen in 1973.

 [32] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Notes manuscrites du Président de la République, undated.

 [33] TNA, FCO 30/2034, Telegram Ewart-Biggs to FCO, 11 September 1974.

 [34] HAEU, EN 854, Émile Noël, ‘Quelques réflexions sur la préparation, le déroulement et les répercussions de la réunion tenue à Paris par les Chefs de Gouvernement (9–10 décembre 1974)’, 15 March 1975.

 [35] AMAE, DE 3790, Communiqué final du Conseil européen, Déclaration de M. Giscard d'Estaing à la presse, 10 December 1974, 20.

 [36] AdsD, HSA, 1/HSAA006638, Vermerk von Per Fischer für die Kabinettsitzung vom 4. September 1974, Betr.: Bericht über Gespräch BK – Präsident Giscard d'Estaing, 3 September 1974.

 [37] Giscard, Pouvoir, 113.

 [38] AMAE, DE 3790, document untitled and unsigned, 11 October 1974.

 [39] AdsD, HSA, 1/HSAA006638, Note Per Fischer to Schmidt, Betr.: Ihr Treffen mit Präsident Giscard d'Estaing, 30 May 1974.

 [40] See Mourlon-Druol, ‘Economist or Monetarist?’

 [41] Goldsborough, ‘End of the Treaty of Rome?’, 1974.

 [42] AMAE, DE 3790, Document de travail, unsigned, 17 October 1974.

 [43] PREM 16/78, Impressions of the discussions at the meeting of EEC Heads of State and Government – The Élysée, 14 September 1974, 16 September 1974.

 [44] HAEU, EN 854, Noël, ‘Quelques réflexions sur la préparation’.

 [45] AMAE, DE 3790, Communiqué final du Conseil européen, Déclaration de Giscard à la presse, 10 December 1974, 13.

 [46] AMAE, DE 3790, Letter den Uyl to Giscard, 9 October 1974.

 [47] AMAE, DE 3790, Note, a.s. ‘éventuelle conference présidentielle – Propositions belges’, unsigned, 11 October 1974.

 [48] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Dîner du 14 September 1974, note by Dutet.

 [49] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 360–65 from Luc, 11 September 1974 and telegram no. 379 from Luc, 14 September 1974.

 [50] AMAE, DE 3790, Letter Liam Cosgrave to Giscard, 20 September 1974.

 [51] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 2199–202 from Lucet, 9 September 1974, and telegram no. 389–91 from Claude-Michel, 10 September 1974.

 [52] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 2979 from Beaumarchais, 15 September 1974. See also Wilson, Final Term, 64–5 and 87–9.

 [53] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note from Dutet, dîner du 14 September 1974.

 [54] HAEU, EN 854, Noël, ‘Quelques réflexions sur la préparation’.

 [55] TNA, PREM 16/78, Note of Leahy, Heads of Governments dinner 14 September, 16 September 1974.

 [56] AMAE, DE 3790, Document de travail, unsigned, 11 September 1974.

 [57] CMA, CM2 1974/107, Compte-rendu du Président sur le réunion des Ministres des Affaires étrangères comme suite au dîner de l'Élysée, 17 October 1974. See also AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 758 from Puaux, 16 October 1974.

 [58] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram, ‘suites à donner aux échanges de vues des ministres à Luxembourg le 15 octobre’, unsigned, 19 October 1974.

 [59] CMA, CM2 1974/107, Note (unsigned), Préparation de la Conférence des Chefs de Gouvernment (réunion des Directeurs politique à Paris le 24 octobre 1974). See also AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974.

 [60] CMA, CM2 1974/107, Note (unsigned), Préparation de la Conférence des Chefs de Gouvernment (réunion des Directeurs politique à Paris le 24 octobre 1974). See also AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974

 [61] AMAE, DE 3790, Projet de synthèse, unsigned, 28 October 1974 and AMAE, Groupe ad hoc, 7 November 1974.

 [62] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 842 from Arnaud, 9 November 1974.

 [63] PAAA, B 202, Zwischenarchiv 109320, Note (unsigned), Betr.: Ministertreffen zur Vorbereitung einer Präsidentschaftskonferenz im Dezember 1974 am 11. November 1974 in Brüssel, hier: Ergebnisvermerk über die Erörterung der institutionellen Fragen, 13 November 1974; and AMAE, DE 3790, Note from Arnaud, 13 November 1974. See also CMA, CM2 1974/107, Réunion des Ministres des Affaires étrangères, Bruxelles, 11 November 1974.

 [64] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 877 from Puaux, 19 November 1974.

 [65] CMA, CM2 1974/107, Réunion des Ministres des Affaires étrangères, Bruxelles, 25 November 1974. See also AMAE, DE 3790, Note, Direction des affaires politiques Europe, Sous-Direction d'Europe Occidentale, 28 November 1974.

 [66] CMA, CM2 1974/107, Réunion des Ministres des Affaires étrangères, Bruxelles, 25 November 1974. See also AMAE, DE 3790, Note, Direction des affaires politiques Europe, Sous-Direction d'Europe Occidentale, 28 November 1974

 [67] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note Robin to Giscard, 7 December 1974.

 [68] AMAE, DE 3790, Dépêche d'actualité (no. 14/DA/EU), ambassade de France en Irlande, 4 October 1974.

 [69] AMAE, DE 3790, Note de l'Ambassade de France à Londres de Cuvillier, 3 October 1974.

 [70] PAAA, B 202, Zwischenarchiv 109320, Document de travail des Pays-Bas, 15 October 1974.

 [71] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 402–5, Mémoire du gouvernement luxembourgeois, 25 September 1974.

 [72] AMAE, DE 3790, Note de la direction des affaires politiques Europe, sous direction d'Europe occidentale, 2 October 1974, unsigned.

 [73] CMA, CM2/1974/107, ‘Idee italiane in vista della preparazione del vertice’, 29 October 1974. See also CAC, 19900568 article 396, Aide-mémoire italien en vue de la préparation du sommet, 5 November 1974.

 [74] CHAN, 5AG3/908, MAE, Telegram no. 1275–81 from Huré, 9 October 1974.

 [75] CHAN, 5AG3/908, MAE, Telegram no. 1275–81 from Huré, 9 October 1974

 [76] HAEU, EN 599, ‘Ausführungen des Bundeskanzlers in Paris am 14. September 1974’.

 [77] AMAE, DE 3790, Note direction des affaires politiques Europe, Sous-direction d'Europe Occidentale, 28 November 1974.

 [78] Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1974 (München: Oldenbourg, 2005), Document 268, 1183.

 [79] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note to Giscard from Robin, 7 November 1974.

 [80] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme non numéroté du directeur des affaires politiques, 16 October 1974.

 [81] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note to Giscard from Robin, 7 December 1974.

 [82] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note to Giscard from Robin, 7 December 1974

 [83] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram, message no. 11 AF/CK of Féquant, 4 November 1974. No official French response to these worries was found in the archives.

 [84] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note to Giscard from Robin, 7 November 1974.

 [85] CHAN, 5AG3/923, Note to Monnet from Pierre-Brossolette, 30 October 1974.

 [86] CHAN, 5AG3/923, Note to Monnet from Pierre-Brossolette, 30 October 1974

 [87] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 951 from Arnaud, 12 December 1974, and AMAE, DE 3790, Communiqué final, 9 December 1974.

 [88] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note to Giscard from Robin, 7 November 1974.

 [89] AMAE, DE 3790, Circulaire no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974.

 [90] AMAE, DE 3790, Groupe; ad hoc, Paris, 24 October 1974.

 [91] AMAE, DE 3790, Groupe ad hoc, Paris, 24 October 1974

 [92] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 1414/25 from Senard, 8 November 1974.

 [93] See also AMAE, DE 3790, Groupe ad hoc, Paris, 24 October 1974.

 [94] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974.

 [95] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974

 [96] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 3829–45 from Beaumarchais, 30 November 1974.

 [97] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 4347–60 from Burin des Roziers, 8 November 1974.

 [98] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 800 from Puaux, 25 October 1974. See Urwin, The Community, 173; Miard-Delacroix, Partenaires de choix?, 157; see also Ménudier in Cohen and Smouts, La politique extérieure, 77.

 [99] CHAN, 5AG3/CP19, Note unsigned, MAE, Direction des Affaires politiques Europe, Sous-Direction d'Europe Occidentale, 1 July 1974

[100] CHAN, 5AG3/CP19, Note de synthèse sur le sommet franco-allemand à Bonn, 8–9 July 1974, unsigned and undated.

[101] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 4575–89 from Wormser, 15 November 1974.

[102] AdsD, HSA, 1/HSAA006586, Kurzvermerk von Hiss über das Telefongespräch Giscard d'Estaing/BK, 28 November 1974.

[103] See for instance AMAE, DE 3790, groupe ad hoc, Paris, 24 October 1974.

[104] See HAEU, EN 854, Noël, ‘Quelques réflexions sur la préparation’. See also a conference paper given in Athens by Noël a bit later assessing the role of the European Council in HAEU, EN 825, Émile Noël, ‘Le Conseil européen’, 7 May 1976.

[105] AMAE, DE 3790, Note pour le ministre du directeur des affaires politiques, 26 November 1974.

[106] AMAE, DE 3790, Note pour le ministre du directeur des affaires politiques, 26 November 1974

[107] AMAE, DE 3790, Note pour le ministre du directeur des affaires politiques, 26 November 1974

[108] Giscard was for instance reported to have handled the 14 September dinner in a ‘very personal way’. See TNA, FCO 30/2034, Note from Arculus, Heads of Government meeting on 14 September, Note of conversation with M. Dutet, Élysée, 12 September 1974.

[109] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 1532/40 from Senard, 4 December 1974.

[110] Callaghan, Time and Chance, 311.

[111] CHAN, 5AG3/921, Note from Robin, 23 August 1974.

[112] Giscard, Pouvoir, 113.

[113] AMAE, DE 3790, Note ‘éventuelle conference présidentielle – Propositions belges’, unsigned, 11 October 1974.

[114] AMAE, DE 3790, Note, le directeur de cabinet, 22 November 1974.

[115] CHAN, 5AG3/908, Note from Robin, undated.

[116] CHAN, 5AG3/908, MAE, Direction des affaires politiques, Télégramme non numéroté, 6 September 1974.

[117] CHAN, 5AG3/908, MAE, Direction des affaires politiques, Télégramme non numéroté, 6 September 1974

[118] See for instance AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 951 from Arnaud, 12 December 1974.

[119] See for instance Bulmer and Wessels, European Council, 36–41.

[120] AdsD, HSA, 1/HSAA006644, Note (unsigned) for Schmidt, Betr.: Vorbereitung eines eventuellen Treffens der Regierungschefs der Neun, hier: 1. Einladungsschreiben von Präsident Giscard d'Estaing 2. Stand der Vorbereitungsarbeiten; Bezug: Aufzeichnung vom 14. Oktober 1974, 24 October 1974.

[121] TNA, PREM 16/78, Record of a conversation with M. Pierre-Brossolette and M. Sauvagnargues on 19 September 1974 by Tomkins.

[122] CADN, RPCEE 1163, Telegram no. 4347–60 from Burin des Roziers, 8 November 1974.

[123] Gerbet, La construction, 440; and Moravcsik, The Choice, 310.

[124] Robin, in Cohen and Smouts, La politique extérieure, 118.

[125] Fontaine, ‘V. Giscard d'Estaing et la construction de l'Europe’, 30.

[126] TNA, PREM 16/382, Records of the Meetings of Heads of State and Government together with Foreign Ministers on 9 December, 13 December 1974.

[127] AMAE, DE 3790, Télégramme circulaire no. 951 from Arnaud, 12 December 1974. See also the account of the negotiations given by the then Irish Foreign Minister, Garret FitzGerald (All in a Life, 133–6).

[128] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 3577/81 from Beaumarchais, 9 November 1974. Handwritten annotation by Giscard to the telegram.

[129] CHAN, 5AG3/CP16, AFP-122, Déclaration de Gaston Thorn, 11 December 1974.

[130] AMAE, DE 3790, Telegram no. 1488/1492 from Huré, 21 November 1974.

[131] Giscard, Pouvoir, 114.

[132] See for instance Hargrove, ‘Valéry Giscard d'Estaing’, 128.

[133] Hoscheit and Wessels, European Council, 13.

[134] CHAN, 5AG3/923, Note Monnet to C. Pierre-Brossolette, 30 October 1974.

[135] Although the Irish Foreign Minister argues the contrary in his memoirs (see FitzGerald, All in a Life, 133) all the archives consulted (not least those of the Secretary General of the Commission, Émile Noël! See particularly HAEU, EN 599) concur to show that the president of the Commission was present during the discussions of the EEC heads of state and governments on 14 September. See also Soell, Schmidt, 376.

[136] BAK, B136/7909 (Zwischenarchiv), Pressekonferenz von Schmidt, 16 September 1974. See also AdsD, HSA, 1/HSAA006644, Note (unsigned) for Schmidt, Betr.: Vorbereitung eines eventuellen Treffens der Regierungschefs der Neun, hier: I. Deutsches Arbeitspapier II. Französisches Arbeitspapier III. Schreiben des belgischen Ministerpräsidenten, 14 October 1974.

[137] A record of the meeting can be found in TNA, PREM 16/382, Records of the Meetings of Heads of State and Government together with Foreign Ministers on 9 December, 13 December 1974.

[138] TNA, PREM 16/382, Records of the Meetings of Heads of State and Government together with Foreign Ministers on 9 December, 13 December 1974.

[139] On the creation of the G5, see James, Rambouillet.

[140] Reynolds, Summits, chapter 8: ‘Summitry as a Way of Life. From the G7 to Bush and Blair’.