In this interview, Georges Berthoin discusses the beginnings of his European career when, in 1952, he was recruited by Jean Monnet, President of the ECSC High Authority, to become Head of his Private Office until Monnet’s resignation in June 1955.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) then of the Commission of the European Communities to the United Kingdom until 1973, discusses the way in which he carried out his role in London.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and subsequently of the Commission of the European Communities to the United Kingdom until 1973, describes the first steps and the legal implications of the diplomatic mission of the High Authority, which was established in London in 1956.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Principal Private Secretary (from 1952 to 1956) to Jean Monnet and then to René Mayer during their respective Presidencies of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), describes the course of the negotiations in 1954 and the implementation of the Association Agreement between the ECSC and the United Kingdom from 1955.

On 21 December 1954, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the United Kingdom sign an agreement on the basis of which the two parties intend to establish an intimate and enduring association.

On 21 December 1954, in London, the British Government, represented by the Minister, Duncan Sandys, and the President of the ECSC High Authority, Jean Monnet, sign an association agreement between the ECSC and the United Kingdom.

On 17 November 1955, René Mayer, President of the High Authority, delivers the inaugural address of the ECSC-United Kingdom Association Council. Three permanent committees are subsequently established: coal, steel and trade relations.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and subsequently Head of the Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities in the United Kingdom until 1973, describes the state of relations between General de Gaulle and the leaders of the United Kingdom as France twice rejected, in 1963 and 1967, the opening of negotiations for the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities.

In February 1957, the British Government forwards a memorandum to the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in Paris in which it sets out its views on the establishment of a European Free Trade Area.

On 15 November 1958, the French President, Charles de Gaulle, explains to the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, why he considers the existence of the Common Market and the obligations that it entails for its Member States to be incompatible with plans for a single industrial free-trade area in Europe.

On 15 July 1958, the British cartoonist, David Low, illustrates the opposition of General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic, to the negotiations for the establishment of a large free-trade area in Europe.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and subsequently Head of the Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities in the United Kingdom until 1973, describes the state of relations between General de Gaulle and the leaders of the United Kingdom as France twice rejected, in 1963 and 1967, the opening of negotiations for the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities.

On 14 January 1963, General de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Elysée Palace, during which he declares his opposition to the United Kingdom's accession to the European Common Market.

‘On the road towards the EEC', the French president, Charles de Gaulle, represents the biggest and most difficult obstacle to overcome for the British prime minister, Harold Wilson.

On 27 November 1967, General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic, holds a press conference at the Élysée Palace in which he renews and explains his opposition to the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), then of the Commission of the European Communities to the United Kingdom until 1973, comments on the political and economic motives behind the United Kingdom's first two applications for accession to the European Communities in 1961 and 1967.

On 31 July 1961, Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister, announces to the House of Commons his Government's decision formally to apply for the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community (EEC).

On 3 February 1962, Sir Michael Tandy, British Ambassador to Luxembourg, delivers to the Luxembourger Christian Calmes, Secretary-General of the Special Council of Ministers of the ECSC, Britain's application for accession to the European Coal and Steel Community.

On 2 May 1967, British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, delivers a speech to the House of Commons in which he defends the United Kingdom's application for accession to the European Economic Communities.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), then of the Commission of the European Communities to the United Kingdom until 1973, describes the attitude taken by the British authorities with regard to the empty chair crisis and the Luxembourg Compromise in 1965–1966.

From 30 June 1965 to 29 January 1966, in disagreement with the Commission of the European Communities on the financing of the common agricultural policy (CAP), France’s representatives refuse to attend any intergovernmental meetings of the Community bodies in Brussels.

On 14 July 1965, Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister, answers questions put to him by journalists who have come to interview him following a meeting with his French counterpart Maurice Couve de Murville on the subject of the empty chair crisis.

The Extraordinary EEC Council of Ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on 17 and 18 and on 28 and 29 January 1966, heeds France's calls for the implementation of the majority voting rule and the role of the European Commission. The ‘Luxembourg Compromise' reached by the Council brings to an end the ‘empty chair crisis' prevailing since 30 June 1965.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Chief Representative of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), then of the European Communities in London from 1956 to 1973, analyses what the British people thought of European integration in the 1950s and 1960s.