On 23 August 1948, the Belgian daily newspaper La Dernière Heure reports on the Congress of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU) to be held in Interlaken under the chairmanship of Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. In giving itself the status of preliminary parliament for the United States of Europe, the Congress seeks to lay the foundations for a European Constituent Assembly elected by national parliaments.

In September 1948, during its second Congress in Interlaken, the European Parliamentary Union (EPU) adopts a detailed programme for the establishment of the United States of Europe and of a European Parliament, a federal executive body and a European supreme court.

On 6 September 1948, in an article published in the American journal Common Cause, the Italian Socialist MP Piero Calamandrei describes the issues surrounding the second Congress of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU) that has just come to a close in Interlaken.

On 7 September 1948, the French daily newspaper Le Monde discusses the impact of the debates which took place during the second European Parliamentary Union (EPU) Congress held in Interlaken from 1 to 5 September 1948.

In October 1948, Henri Brugmans, Dutch President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and Vice-President of the European Movement, gives an account of the debates and issues involved in the second Congress of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU), held from 1 to 5 September 1948 in Interlaken.

In his memoirs, Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU), outlines how the members of the movement voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Interlaken Plan for a European federation at the second EPU Congress in September 1948.

In June 1948, Joseph Retinger, Secretary-General of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, invites all the pro-European movements and numerous political figures from Western Europe to take rapid action to follow up the resolutions adopted at the Congress of Europe in The Hague, particularly with regard to the proposal for a European Assembly.

On 20 July 1948, the Belgian daily newspaper La Dernière Heure interviews the former French Prime Minister, Paul Ramadier, Chairman of the Political Committee at the Congress of Europe in The Hague. Two months after the Congress, the Socialist politician emphasises the need for a political authority to achieve European revival and insists on the importance of the proposed European Assembly.

On 21 July 1948, Duncan Sandys, President of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, sends to the Foreign Ministers of the five member countries of the Consultative Council of the Brussels Treaty Organisation a letter informing them that, in the event that the governments or parliaments are unwilling to convene a European Assembly, the Committee is prepared to undertake such a task itself.

On 21 July 1948, the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity questions Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Minister, on the United Kingdom's position concerning the creation of a European Assembly.

On 24 July 1948, Paul Ramadier, French Socialist MP, and Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, discuss the political ways and means required for the establishment of a European Parliamentary Assembly.

On 3 August 1948, in Brussels, Duncan Sandys and Joseph Retinger, respectively the President and the Secretary-General of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, meet Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, to consider together the strategy that should be adopted so that progress can be made in the plan for a European Assembly.

On 13 August 1948, Georges Rebattet, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, sends to the former French Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee’s Institutional Committee, Paul Ramadier, the memorandum on the convening of a European Assembly that the Committee sends the same day to the governments of the founding States of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC).

On 18 July 1948, the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity finalises a resolution to be submitted to the parliaments of the Member States of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) with a view to the rapid establishment of a European Assembly which would, itself, be responsible for preparations for a European union or federation.

On 18 August 1948, the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity takes note of the French Government’s decision to pursue its plans for the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 24 July 1948, the German weekly publication Rheinischer Merkur welcomes the proposal put forward by Georges Bidault, French Foreign Minister, with a view to the establishment of a European Assembly and an economic and customs union in Europe.

On 23 August 1948, the British daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph hopes to see Clement Attlee’s Labour Government support the French proposal to establish a European Assembly.

‘Let's saddle the bull, Europa will know how to ride it …' On 25 August 1948, referring to the French Government's proposal for the rapid establishment of a European Assembly, cartoonist Mirko Szewczuk illustrates the questions aired in some countries in Western Europe on the chances of success of the European plan.

On 26 August 1948, welcoming the French proposal for the establishment of a European Assembly, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit considers the positions adopted by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union with regard to the process of European unification and speculates on Germany’s place in Europe.

On 10 September 1948, noting the wait-and-see attitude of the Netherlands Government with regard to the joint initiative of the Belgian and French Governments to establish a European Assembly, the European Movement decides to increase its pressure on the Netherlands authorities.

On 26 August 1948, the British daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports the reply of Clement Attlee, British Prime Minister, to Winston Churchill, President of the United Europe Movement, concerning the establishment of a European Assembly. Attlee believes that the British Government cannot rule on the question without first having consulted the leaders of the Commonwealth countries.

On 26 August 1948, René Massigli, French Ambassador to London, sends a letter to Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, in which he gives an account of the conversations between Clement Attlee, British Labour Prime Minister, and the former Conservative Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, on the proposal for a European Assembly.

On 27 August 1948, the French daily newspaper Le Monde considers the reasons for the guarded attitude of the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, towards the proposed European Assembly.

On 28 August 1948, the French daily newspaper Le Monde explains the reasons for the United Kingdom’s reservations towards the unity of Europe, particularly with regard to the proposed European Assembly.

In August 1948, the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity sets down in a memorandum the efforts that it has been making for the past three months since the Congress of Europe in The Hague in order to persuade governments to establish a European Assembly.

In summer 1948, André Noël, French MP and Member of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU), drafts a note in which he proposes — in order to avoid the pitfalls foreseen by the British — that committees be set up within the Belgian, British, French, Luxembourg and Netherlands Parliaments with the task of preparing for the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 28 August 1948, in an article in the Toulouse daily newspaper La Nouvelle République, Paul Ramadier, former French Prime Minister and Chairman of the Political Committee at the Congress of Europe in The Hague three months earlier, welcomes the action taken by the pro-European movements and the line adopted by the governments concerning the idea of a European Assembly.

On 30 August 1948, H. D. Zimans, who covered the Congress of Europe for the British daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph, comments in the same newspaper on the French proposal for a European Consultative Assembly.

In September 1948, Duncan Sandys, Chairman of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, and Joseph Retinger, Secretary of the Committee, send to European federalists a circular calling for their support for the establishment of a European Assembly, as recommended in May by the political resolution adopted at the Congress of Europe in The Hague.

On 4 September 1948, the London weekly magazine The New Statesman and Nation expresses its bewilderment at the French proposal for the establishment of a European Assembly consisting of all the Member States of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and calls, instead, for the establishment of an Assembly comprising the five countries signatory to the Treaty of Brussels (the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), to which would be added West Germany.

At the 27th sitting of the Standing Committee of the Treaty of Brussels held in London on 2 September 1948, the representatives of the governments of the five Powers adopt a position on the memorandum from the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, dated 18 August 1948, with a view to the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 7 September 1948, the British authorities express a number of doubts about the memorandum drawn up by the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity with a view to the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 18 October 1948, the French representative to the Standing Committee for the Brussels Treaty calls on all the delegations from the Five to work together for the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 26 November 1948, the British delegation on the Committee for the Study of European Unity, chaired in Paris by Édouard Herriot, proposes the creation of a Council of Europe which would consist of a Consultative Assembly and a Council of Ministers.

On 9 December 1948, a delegation from the European Movement travels to the Quai d’Orsay in Paris to submit a proposal for a European Assembly to the Study Committee for a European Union established by the five signatory states of the Treaty of Brussels. From left to right: Francis Leenhardt, Étienne de la Vallée Poussin, Duncan Sandys, Robert Bichet, Joseph Retinger, Raoul Dautry and Henri Brugmans.

On 9 December 1948, a delegation from the Executive Committee of the European Movement makes a statement to the European Union Working Committee established in Paris by the five governments signatory to the Brussels Treaty in which it refers to the form and to the powers and responsibilities of a European Consultative Assembly.

On 24 December 1948, commenting on the issues involved in European unification, the Luxembourg daily newspaper Tageblatt gives details of the memorandum issued by the European Movement on the European Consultative Assembly and a European Council of Ministers.

On 1 February 1949, as debates are being held on the subject of a united Europe, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique publishes an article in which Belgian Senator Paul Struye speculates on the role and powers of a future European Assembly.

On 6 February 1949, Duncan Sandys, British Conservative MP and President of the International Executive Committee of the European Movement, sends to the Foreign Ministers of the five states signatory to the Brussels Treaty a letter in which he welcomes and comments on their decision to establish a Council of Europe consisting of a Committee of Ministers and a Consultative Assembly.

In spring 1949, the European Movement draws up a programme of activities for the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in the light of the recommendations made by European activists since the Congress of Europe in The Hague in May 1948.

On 28 March 1949, the British delegation participating in the negotiations of the Five on the establishment of a Council of Europe sends to its partners a preparatory note concerning the conduct and objectives of the final phase of their work.

On 5 May 1949, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung focuses on the diplomatic negotiations that seek to establish political cooperation between the democratic states of Western Europe and to establish a Council of Europe.

In December 1949, Raymond Silva, Secretary-General of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), assesses the establishment of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and considers the numerous efforts being made by the European Movement to establish a united Europe on a federal basis.

On 1 October 1948, in the light of the British Government’s differing interpretation of the memorandum from the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity dated 18 August 1948, the French Government sets out its views on the role and composition of the European Assembly.

On 15 October 1948, Jules Guillaume, Belgian Ambassador to France, informs Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, of the British Government’s rather reticent position on the Franco-Belgian proposal for the establishment of a European Assembly.

On 14 and 19 October 1948, the British daily newspaper Daily Mail publishes an exchange of letters between the Labour MP Ronald W. G. Mackay, Vice-President of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU), and Edward Beddington Behrens, industrialist, which demonstrate the liveliness of the debates on the plans for a united Europe and a European Assembly.

On 11 August 1948, the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity issues a press release giving details of the efforts that it has made among governments over the past three months to promote the establishment of a European Assembly.

This archive film portrays the origins and the early days of the Council of Europe in 1949 following the Congress of Europe held in The Hague in May 1948.

In spring 1949, the European Movement publishes the text of the recommendations on the proposal for a European Consultative Assembly which were adopted in Brussels on 28 February 1949 at the end of its first Congress.

In May 1949, to welcome the signing of the Statute of the Council of Europe in London, the European Movement publishes this brochure which outlines the successive initiatives which it has taken in order to achieve one of the political objectives of the Congress of Europe in The Hague.