Europe's First Constitution

In May 2000, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer dramatically injected new life into the debate on the future course of integration by suggesting that a 'core' of EU members should move ahead of the rest and negotiate a federal treaty among themselves. The fact that, in the early 1950s, the six founding members of the ECSC and the EEC had tried to do exactly that, has scarcely entered the discussion. This book rediscovers the history of the draft European Political Community treaty that was completed in March 1953 but abandoned by the governments of the Six eighteen months later. This volume represents the first comprehensive study on Europe's first constitution drawing on the archives of all the participating states. The EPC episode involved discussions of joint defence policy, the framework for future economic integration, foreign policy coordination and the democratisation of European institutions. The book also draws a range of parallels between the situation today, where an overburdened European Union is ill-equipped for the challenge of accepting new members, and the situation in the early 1950s. The challenges then were similar to those faced to today, and the arguments then employed for and against closer integration bear an uncanny resemblance to those employed fifty years later. Professor Griffiths had written a study of the past to inform the present, without sacrificing integrity as either an historian or a social scientist.