Committee for the Study of European Unity

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The Committee for the Study of European Unity was a committee set up in 1948 to draw up proposals for a new European organisation that was to become the Council of Europe. The difficult negotiations of this short-lived body were to have a lasting impact on the postwar European institutional architecture.

Introduction

The Committee for the Study of European Unity was convened in 1948 by the Consultative Council of the Brussels Treaty Organisation (BTO), with the task of drawing up a blueprint for a new European organisation to bring together the European democracies. It met 15 times from November 1948 to January 1949 and succeeded in agreeing the form that the new organisation should take. The five Brussels Treaty foreign ministers then entrusted a conference of their ambassadors with drafting the Statute of the Council of Europe.

Background

In May 1948, the Hague Congress or Congress of Europe had ended with a strong “Message to Europeans”, calling for “A united Europe ... a Charter of Human Rights ... A Court of Justice [and] A European Assembly”.

At the next meeting of the Consultative Council of the Brussels Treaty, French Foreign Minister Bidault had proposed the creation of a European Parliament. Referring to this, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, writing to Winston Churchill, was of the opinion that “this is not the right time for governments to take this major initiative.” But Britain was under pressure, not least from the Americans , to cooperate more closely with its European allies and at its meeting on 25-26 October, Consultative Committee took the decision to convene a special committee to examine what institutional form such cooperation might take.

Composition

The Committee was composed of delegations of the five powers of the Brussels Treaty Organisation – Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, 18 illustrious politicians, civil servants and academics, 5 each for Britain and France, 3 for Belgium and Netherlands, 2 for Luxembourg.

Gladwyn Jebb lists the members as follows:

Britain – Hugh Dalton, Sir Edward Bridges (Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Head of the Home Civil Service), Lord Inverchapel, Professor Emlyn Capel Stewart Wade and T.H. Gill – and Gladwyn Jebb himself, who served as ‘Secretary General’. France – Edouard Herriot, François de Menthon (who was to be PACE president 1952-4), Guy Mollet (French Prime Minister, 1956-1957), Paul Reynaud (French PM 1940) and Charles Corbin (French Ambassador in London at beginning of WW2]. Netherlands – Piet Kerstens, Willem Albarda, Jan A.H.J.S. Bruins Slot ((member of the Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1949-1957). Belgium – Fernand Dehousse (President of the Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1956-1959), Fernand Van Langenhove (also Chairman of the Delegation of Belgium to the First Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations), Walter Loridan. Luxembourg – Fernand Loesch (member of the Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1949-1954), Nicolas Hommel (Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, 1973-1980), Michel Rasquin.

The meetings were held in Paris, at the Palais Bourbon. The reason for seeking to establish a new organisation was a strong dissatisfaction on the side of the French and Benelux governments with the limitations of the BTO, which was essentially concerned with defence and had no permanent secretariat and no parliamentary assembly. However, the two sides, Britain on one side, the other four on the other, could not have been further apart. The British had no appetite for any form of European federalism, whereasthe other delegates were pushing hard for an elected European assembly with real powers.

Progress of work

The Committee began working in November. The British Government submitted a "Memorandum on the British proposal for a Council of Europe", arguing that the new organisation take the form of a governmental committee that was "headed by ministers". The French and Belgian delegations submitted a counter-proposal, calling for a "European Consultative Assembly" of delegates appointed by national parliaments, with powers to place any matter on its agenda.

On 30 November, the Committee delegated a subcommittee to study the British and Franco-Belgian proposals. The subcommittee, chaired by Mr Loesch, met 12 times from 1 to 15 December, finally drawing up and approving a report and draft statute for a ministerial "Council of Europe" assisted by a "European Consultative Assembly". At its next meeting on 16 December, the Committee decided to submit the sub-committee's report to its five governments.

At the beginning of January, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman travelled to London for talks with his British counterpart Ernest Bevin. Following this, the British delegation submitted a new proposal, which they declared was non-negotiable, calling for a "Committee of Ministers", meeting in private, supported by a "Conference" of national delegations, nominated by governments, meeting in public with an agenda determined by the Committee of Ministers.

As a sweetener, the British delegation suggested at the same time that the seat of the Council of Europe should be in Strasbourg. While this suggestion officially came from Ernest Bevin, it was apparently Jebb who had originally suggested Strasbourg to Bevin, not only because of his student days there but also because he saw this as a powerful symbol of postwar reconciliation. The British proposal mentioned making bridges with the ‘strange country’ that was Germany. The British proposal to name the new organisation the ‘Council of Europe’ was retained.

The Committee's proposals for a parliamentary assembly suggested the following delegations Britain (12 delegates) France (12) (Italy – 11) (Germany – 11) Netherlands - (3) Belgium - (3) Luxembourg - (2)

The Committee made no mention of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Ireland, who were shortly to sign the statute as founder members of the new organisation on 5 May 1949, whereas Germany, still with no functioning government, was not invited.

The Committee held a final series of meetings from 18 to 20 January 1949 but was unable to reach agreement. It has been suggested that the breakdown in the discussions may have been related to the fact that Bevin was now seriously ill. As a result, Robert Schuman sent the afore-mentioned December sub-committee report, together with the new British proposal, to the Brussels Treaty Consultative Council. He also send them the detailed reports of all eight plenary meetings of the Committee and the 12 meetings of the sub-committee.

Most of the documents relating to these meetings, all produced in both English and French and marked secret, have yet to appear in the public domain. Some 20 documents (19 of which are in French) are held in the Council of Europe Archives in Strasbourg, now closed to the public.

Follow-up

The Brussels Treaty Consultative Council, faced with two contradictory proposals, entrusted the final drafting of the Statute of the Council of Europe to a conference of its ambassadors. The resulting Statute was a much more detailed document that took elements from both proposals.

See also

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• Treaty of Brussels
• Council of Europe

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