‘It’s in your best interest to stay on good terms with me, gentlemen, for I’m thinking of becoming the third force …’ In 1957, the German cartoonist Köhler questions the role to be played by Europe on the international stage.
On 14 April 1958, the Action Committee for a United States of Europe adopts a draft resolution on the relations to be established between the European Economic Community (EEC) and third countries, in particular the United Kingdom.
‘The third force — Up you go, Harold!’ On 20 August 1960, the German satirical weekly magazine Simplicissimus leads on Europe’s tricky attempts to position itself on the international stage (from bottom to top, Harold MacMillan, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer) between the two great powers of the United States (left, Dwight D. Eisenhower) and the Soviet Union (right, Nikita S. Khrushchev).
Am 26. Juni 1962 kommentiert Victor Bodson, Vertreter der luxemburgischen sozialistischen Partei im Aktionskomitee für die Vereinigten Staaten von Europa, die am Vortag vom Komitee verabschiedete Erklärung über den Beitrittsantrag des Vereinigten Königreichs zu den Europäischen Gemeinschaften und über die Stärkung der Beziehungen zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und dem gemeinschaftlichen Europa.
On 3 May 1965, in Paris, the European Movement expresses its determination to see Europe establish the defence and foreign policy institutions that it requires in order to play a greater role on the international stage.
On 2 May 1962, the Brussels daily newspaper La Libre Belgique considers what kind of relations the Six should have with the potential applicant countries for accession to or association with the European Communities, regardless of the stance taken by the European Socialist parties in particular vis-à-vis Francoist Spain.