WEEKLY SUPPLEMENT / European library

*** LAURENCE BADEL, STANISLAS JEANNESSON, N. PIERS LUDLOW (Eds.): Les administrations nationales et la construction européenne. Une approche historique (1919-1975). Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. e-mail: [e-mail] - Internet: http://www.peterlang.net ). "Euroclio" series, No. 31. 2005, 409 pp. ISBN 90-5201-264-4.

Publishing the proceedings of a conference at Paris I University in September 2003, this book continues the 'Euroclio' series of interesting and high quality publications in which renowned historians gradually and methodically explain unknown or overlooked aspects of the genesis and first stages of the European project. This particularly applies to the current volume. Firstly, the potential emergence of European awareness leading to the formulation of actual unity programmes is sought well ahead of the formation of the European Communities, going back to the first years of the twentieth century. National (and other) administrations are always, by nature, backroom boys and the general public only remembers, at best, the names of some of the people who ran the ministries at some point in time. This leads the reader to make fine discoveries, with the scientific approach and the work of the historians shedding light on how a 'European culture' could emerge in various bodies in countries of Europe which, without being aware of it, were living out the end of their absolute sovereignty. Better still, while reading the pages of the book, all the essays help one relive the events recalled by various great public servants whose names have been forgotten today - if they were ever known to the general public. Men who through their actions, explained in detail in the book, either contributed to or put a spanner in the works of the slow but inexorable maturing of mentality about Europe. There are no women among them - which in itself is the sign of a different age.

The first staging post in this pilgrimage is the French office of the Society of Nations at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, which had the job of being in the front line of managing the first genuine attempt to construct a European project, properly speaking, between the wars, namely the Briand plan for a Federal European Union. Raphaële Ulrich-Pier of Paris I University writes that Europe was not seen at that time as a potential political or economic body, but the research carried out under Briand's instigation was not wholly lost; and resurfaced in snatches when the question of a European project returned to current events at the end of 1940s. At that time, France's ambassador in London, René Massigli, who had in his time been one of the managers of the French office of the Society of Nations, wrote that at the Foreign Office, they had taken the Briand plan out of the files and looked at what could be learned from it. Stanislas Jeannesson of Paris IV University then looks at the trade relations sub-directorate of the Quai d'Orsay office and the economic rebuilding of Europe after the First World War, bringing to life a certain Jacques Seydoux who, in 1919, had argued the case for closer connections between French and German industry. At one time, writes Sylvain Schirmann of the Strasbourg-based 'Institut d'études politiques', there was an identical mentality in France and at the business departments of the 'Auswärtiges Amt' which, under the direction of Karl Ritter, worked to achieve a European economic union starting from agreement between France and Germany. Robert Boyce of the London School of Economics and Political Science describes the Foreign Office, often suspected of being eurocentric or pro-European (back in Margaret Thatcher's days), but which often seasoned its realism with solid anti-French prejudice, with prime minister Ramsay MacDonald even going as far as saying about France in 1931 that it used the worst Jewish methods and that acting in the name of moral values was incompatible with the French character. Germany is collapsing while France is horse-trading, he added. Between the wars, with a few very rare exceptions, British diplomats never championed extended cooperation with the Continent, preferring a policy of independence in the name of putting Empire first. Studying the 'Mouvement général des fonds' at the start of the 30s, Laure Quennouëlle-Corre brings to life one Jacques Rueff, who suggested to Alexis Léger, then Briand's head of cabinet, that he whisper in the minister's ear the idea of Europe being an exception to the most favoured nation rule. Later, in his memoirs, he wrote that the main benefit of his idea was to pave the way for unions of regions, which would finally become the European Economic Community. The first part of the book ends with an essay by Léonard Laborie of Paris IV Sorbonne University, who describes in great detail the ambiguous role of Europe in running postal services between the wars.

The second part of the book looks at the impact of European integration from the 1950s onward for several administrations. Always with the same concern for precision and scientific rigour, other authors look at how the directorate of business affairs at the Quai D'Orsay and the directorate of foreign economic relations at the French finance ministry changed in the light of the Treaty of Rome; the role of the Department of Economic Affairs when the UK applied to join Europe a second time; evolution in the attitude of West German foreign ministers from the inception of the European project until 1974; the attitude of the Italian administrations in the first decade of the European Economic Community; and the attitude of the fuel directorate at the French industry ministry to the planned European Commission oil policy. The third part of the book looks at 'new working methods' at the General Secretariat of the French 'comité interministériel' and, more importantly, at the emergence of the COREPER committee through the functioning of the Dutch Permanent Representation in the 1960s. It goes without saying that some readers will have the double pleasure of also reading about some well-known figureheads …

Michel Theys

*** KLAUS SCHWABE (Ed.): Konrad Adenauer und Frankreich 1949-1963. Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung zu den deutsch-französischen Beziehungen in Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur. Bouvier Verlag (Bonn). "Rhöndorfer Gespräche" series, No. 21. 2005, 264 pp. ISBN 3-416-03075-3.

Since 1969, the "Rhöndorfer Gespräche" have been bringing together politicians, historians and experts in the village near Bonn where Konrad Adenauer spent the last years of his life (Rhondorf). Ever since 1978, the presentations at the discussions have been published in a book, and this 21st edition looks at the topic 'Konrad Adenauer and France, 1949-1963, state of research and perspectives on Franco-German relations in politics, economics and culture'. The participants at the most recent discussions included a great expert on Germany, Alfred Grosser, professor at the 'Institut d'Etudes Politiques' in Paris, who looks here at Adenauer, France and Europe, and Adenauer's influence today. Prof. Grosser is in fine fettle, vivaciously describing the relationship between Adenauer and Schuman, two figureheads driven by both realism and idealism at the same time. Why should one have to chose between the two?, asks Alfred Grosser, adding that Robert Schuman was a statesman partly because he was not the type of man to wait for the results of opinion polls before taking action. Grosser takes the case of "Robert Schuman organising a poll in France on 1 May 1950. Barely five years after the end of the war, how could you expect a state of Germany to be treated equally? I assume that 90% would have said no. He organised the poll and the majority were in favour!"

The collection includes a discussion between Alfred Grosser and Paul Collowald (former Director General for Information at the European Parliament and former Head of Cabinet for the President of the European Parliament, Pierre Pflimlin) on what Collowald called the 'controversy surrounding 9 May 1950'. Collowald has very clear memories of the time (he describes, for example, when as a young journalist in Strasbourg, he had a long conversation with Robert Schuman on 12 August 1949). He paid attention when reading the classics and in his address at the Rhondorf discussions, he quoted Pierre Gerbet's contradictory versions on the 'founding date of Franco-German reconciliation and the European project.' In his 1999 'reference work' entitled "La construction de l'Europe", Pierre Gerbet wrote that in the morning of 9 May, Schuman had a member of his cabinet hand a personal letter to Chancellor Adenauer and a summary of the French proposals. But in Gerbet's contribution to the book "Le plan Schuman dans l'histoire" published in 2004, there are two versions of Robert Mischlich's meeting with Konrad Adenauer: Robert Mischlich's version (a member of Robert Schuman's cabinet) who said that the meeting took place around 10 o'clock in the morning on Tuesday 9 May; and Herbert Blankenhorn's version that the French emissary's visit took place at midday on Monday 8 May. Like a detective, Paul Collowald pieces togethe what might have been Robert Mischlich's footsteps in Bonn, having accomplished his secret mission. He also dips into less well-known works, like "Robert Schuman, Architekt des Neuen Europa" by Rudolf Mittendorfer (1983) where he is astonished to read: "On the morning of Monday 9 May 1950, the Council of French ministers was in session. Robert Schuman was planning to present the Plan to the Council, but first had to wait for Adenauer's agreement ". But 9 May was not a Monday, exclaims Paul Collowald, going on to pinpoint a number of other recent errors in the dates surrounding 9 May, accusing a fair number of politicians of giving in to the temptation of telling us what happened on 9 May 1950, when they themselves were five or six years of age and still playing marbles with their friends!

(MG)

*** CHRISTINE DE MAZIERES, BABETTE NIEDER: L'Europe par l'école. Un plaidoyer franco-allemand. Editions ESKA (12 rue du Quatre-Septembre, F-75002 Paris. Tel: [phone] - Fax: [phone] - Internet: http: //http://www.eska.fr ). 2006, 131 pp. ISBN 2-7472-0940-7.

Neither of us is a linguist or education specialist - we are simply European by conviction with personal and professional lives marked by Franco-German relations, explain the authors of this impassioned and down-to-earth book describing a plan to Europeanise schools, aimed at anyone, parents, teachers, pupils, or politicians, anyone asking questions about the state of the education system and the future of the European Union. German national Babette Nieder, who used to work on education and cultural issues at the European Commission and was head of the Franco-German youth office for five years, represents the "Génération EUROPE 21" association at the 'Maison de l'Europe' in Paris run by Catherine Lalumière. Christine de Mazières, brought up as both French and German, chairs the 'Initiative Paris-Berlin' association. They deliberately designed the book using a Franco-German approach (it is written in both French and German to boot). It starts with the French no vote on the European constitution in the 29 May 2005 referendum. One year before, a Sofres survey revealed that 75% of the French people polled approved of the idea of a European constitution. Fear lies at the heart of this paradox, and the origin of this fear is lack of understanding, argue Babette Nieder and Christine de Mazières, writing that a change of direction is required and the European Union should be started again through education and lessons about Europe from the youngest age. They have no doubt about this and outline many very detailed ideas based on their close knowledge of the European Union and what they have learned about children's learning capacity. In their opinion, a school preparing all children to be full citizens should be based on four ideas - starting learning two foreign languages before the age of nine; making the learning of English compulsory as a second language (because all studies show that at the end of their school days, pupils who start off learning another foreign language have as good or better knowledge of English as those who start learning English as their first foreign language); and limiting strict language teaching to only five years, followed by using the languages learned to teach other subjects and teaching European civilisation. Mentioning historian Jacques Le Goff's book "L'Europe racontée aux enfants", the authors say that the course in European civilisation could, along with the myth of Europe and symbols of Europe, address the common aspects of the history of Europe starting with Ancient Greece that all EU nations share as a common cultural foundation - the history of philosophical ideas, political ideas and religious ideas, history of art, history of great scientific and technological discoveries, and history of European trade. This will clearly require huge work by teachers - teachers are described by Babette Nieder et Christine de Mazières as having the potential in this way to become the 'hussars' of the European Union. The authors write that if France and Germany were able to create the Airbus together, along with Ariane and Eurocorps, then they should be trusted to make a success of schools for future citizens of the European Union, which would be decisive for the common future.

(MG)

*** THIERRY CORNILLET: Guide des aides de l'Union européenne. Parlement européen (ASP 09G103, rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels. e-mail: [e-mail]). 2006, 143 pp.

French centrist MEP Thierry Cornillet is a European through-and-through. Aware of the extent to which many people are ignorant about the financial aid available from the European Union for projects of European interest, he has written a guide to help people find their way around the labyrinth of EU funding. A very practical guide with brief outlines of 86 different aid programmes, listed by topic. Following a brief description, the author explains who is eligible, the amount of money available, application criteria and contact details. Through the annexes, it is possible to seek funding options via programmes or type of beneficiary. The guide is provided free of charge and available by e-mail from Thierry Cornillet ([e-mail]).

(FRo)