The significance of the Schuman declaration of May 1950 for the idea of a federal Europe in the period 1950-1954

Résumé du document

Americans wanted a prosperous Germany, the French a weakened Germany. The French humiliated the Germans because of fear. Monnet proposed Europe. Through the Schuman Declaration, Monnet and Schuman believed that it would solve the post WWII German problem. Indeed for both political actors, the belief of unifying war industry resources such as coal and steel, amongst adjacent western European states under a supranational body was considered to be appropriate and most of all feasible: "World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it" (Schuman in Fontaine 2000: 36). But behind the official discourse of making "war politically unthinkable and economically impossible" (Gillingham 1991: 228) emerged another political motive with concrete projects of a multi-level governed Europe, which would take place in the long run.

Extraits

[...] However, growing pessimism and scepticism at the idea of a Federal Europe obviously occurred among the public opinion but also with a part of the intelligentsia across Europe. Out of national pride, some made the irrational amalgam of associating nation-state building with federalism by means of just comparing empirically various federalist regimes such as those of Switzerland, Germany or the United States of America without taking into account the specificity of the European Community as a functional, experimental and incremental federalism: “Federalism has, therefore, become inextricably intertwined with the dual ideas of building both a new and a new (Burgess 2000: xi-xii). [...]

[...] Such a position is reinforced when one thinks about European Integration in itself as a process. Indeed, throughout the History of European Integration, Member State has contemplated leaving a Community which is seen as an irreplaceable framework for the development and international status of its member countries” (Fontaine 2000: 21). Such a statement underlines how purely beneficial being part of the Federal Europe can be: Britain which didn't join the EC in the early years during the Treaty of Paris found herself disadvantaged years later with original member states when one looks at Britain and the Common Agricultural Policy for instance. [...]

[...] Such an initiative would be significant for advocates of Federalism as it “will lead to the realisation of the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace” (Schuman in Fontaine 2000: 36). This would inevitably increase the mutual interests of each member state in terms of development, economic growth, cut tariffs, productivity as though through economic means this “European federation ultimate goal would be to go towards wider and deeper community between countries long opposed to one another by sanguinary divisions” (Schuman in Fontaine 2000: 36). [...]

[...] Moreover, there has been an atmosphere of suspicion around the idea of federalism because it disputes rigid frontiers of national sovereignty, which is also reflected in the mainstream literature on the European Community. The word “federalism” appeared explicitly in treaties (yet there are notable exceptions with federealists such as Monnet or Spinelli) only from the 1980's and onwards with the Single European Act. Conversely, it is also considered as a taboo word in the mainstream literature as it has been alluded to ”multi-level governance”, “Europeanization” or to functionalism. [...]

[...] Indeed, this paper will demonstrate how for advocates of a european federalism the Schuman Declaration can be seen as the trigger to pursue the goal of a federal political community in Europe via economic means. To begin with, one must be acquainted with the definition of Federalism in order to understand the significance of the Schuman Declaration. Federalism can be defined as such : ‘'an organitzational principle of a political system, emphasizing both vertical power-sharing across different levels of governance (centre-region) and at the same time, the integration of different territorial and socio-economic units, cultural and ethnic groups in one single polity'' (McLean and McMillan 2003: 194). [...]