Table showing European Economic Community exports and imports with regard to non-member countries in 1970.

On the 11 December 1974, the cartoonist Fritz Behrendt portrays Europe’s efforts to assert itself on the international stage.

In 1975, Europe initiates dialogue with China, Israel and the Arab countries. The cartoonist Bas portrays the EEC as seeking to extend its role in the world and to promote peace between peoples.

In 1978, in view of the supremacy of the United States, the Soviet Union, China and the Arab petroleum exporting countries, the German cartoonist, Walter Hanel, takes an ironic look at the slow pace of political integration in Europe.

Le 10 avril 1976, interviewé sur les ondes de RTL, Leo Tindemans, Premier ministre de Belgique, commente l'attitude des autorités politiques de Washington, de Moscou et de Pékin vis-à-vis de l'Europe en construction.

In this interview, Gaston Thorn, former Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, gives his views on Community Europe's influence on the world stage during the 1970s.

In this interview, Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, former Belgian Foreign Minister and former President of the Chamber of Deputies, describes the links maintained during the 1980s between the Christian Democratic parties of the Member States of the European Communities and their counterparts in Portugal, Spain and the countries of Eastern Europe before their democratisation.

In this interview, Edmund Wellenstein, Director-General for Foreign Trade at the Commission of the European Communities from 1967 to 1970, explains how the Commission was able to confirm its position as a player on the world stage during the negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and particularly outlines the Member States’ reactions to the increasingly influential role of the Commission.

In this interview, Edmund Wellenstein, European Commission Director-General for External Relations between 1973 and 1976, describes the circumstances and proceedings of the European Commission’s official visit to China in May 1975, particularly emphasising the political and economic issues surrounding the visit.