On 28 August 1954, the debate on the European Defence Community (EDC) began in the French National Assembly. A preliminary motion to adjourn was proposed by those in favour of the the EDC. Its opponents countered this with a preliminary issue allowing rejection of the Treaty without any debate. Although Pierre Mendès France managed to get them to withdraw it, the next day a supporter of the EDC succeeded in presenting the preliminary issue once again.This provided for the intervention of two people representing the respective interests. The spokesman for the opponents was the ex-president of the Assembly, the radical Edouard Herriot. His contribution was the death warrant for the EDC.
‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the show has been cancelled!’ This is how the Netherlands receive the news of France’s rejection, on 31 August 1954, of the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC), which has, however, already been ratified by Germany and the three Benelux countries.
‘Refused!’ In 1954, Pierre Mendès France, French Prime Minister, refuses any form of participation by German forces in a European Defence Community (EDC), despite pleas from the US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, and the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden.
On 30 August 1954, Robert Als, Luxembourg Ambassador to Paris, sends a letter to Luxembourg Prime Minister Joseph Bech in which he analyses the attitude of Pierre Mendès-France during the debates on the European Defence Community.
Am 2. September 1954 berichtet die Luxemburger Tageszeitung Luxemburger Wort über die Auswirkungen, die die Weigerung der französischen Nationalversammlung, den Vertrag zur Gründung der Europäischen Verteidigungsgemeinschaft (EVG) zu ratifizieren, auf die europäische Verteidigung hat.
