On 18 October 1955, the French daily newspaper Le Monde welcomes the very open, positive spirit at the Franco–German meeting held the previous day in Bad Neuenahr by the German Council of the European Movement.
On 18 July 1956, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel closely follows the debates in France on the implications of a European atomic community, and, in particular, highlights the difficulties faced by France in seeking to assert its authority over the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) while at the same time not falling under its influence.
On 16 September 1956, Maurice Faure, Junior Minister in the French Foreign Ministry, and Ludwig Erhard, German Minister for Economic Affairs, meet in the Berlin Town Hall to discuss the respective positions of France and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on the proposed European Common Market.
On 18 September 1956, Maurice Faure, Junior Minister in the French Foreign Ministry, and Franz Joseph Strauß, German Minister for Atomic Affairs, meet in Bonn for an exchange of views on all the problems posed by the establishment of Euratom.
At the conference held from 25 to 28 March 1987 in Rome to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Maurice Faure, former French Junior Foreign Minister and former Head of the French Delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, refers to the climate of confidence between the governments in Paris and Bonn in the mid-1950s and to its importance for the success of European revival.
Discussions within the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany
In a private note, probably written in March 1955, Ludwig Erhard, German Minister for Economic Affairs, outlines why he prefers the economic and functional integration of European states to institutional integration.
On 30 March 1955, Walter Hallstein, German Junior Foreign Minister, draws up a confidential note on the future of European integration and the need for the Federal Republic of Germany to participate in a united Europe.
In April 1955, Frantz Etzel, Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), responds to the views of Ludwig Erhard, German Minister for Economic Affairs, on the subject of the revival of European integration. He emphasises the need to continue European integration in the economic domain as well as in the political and institutional fields.
On 27 April 1955, Franz Etzel, German Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), informs Jean Monnet of a meeting with Alfred Müller-Armack, adviser to Ludwig Erhard, West German Minister for Economic Affairs, in which he distances himself from Erhard’s views on Europe.
On 2 June 1955, Franz Etzel, German Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), sends a letter to Ludwig Erhard, German Minister for Economic Affairs, in which he asks for details of the West German Government’s European policy following statements in the press regarding further moves towards European integration.
On 6 July 1955, Alfred Müller-Armack, Adviser to the German Minister for Economic Affairs, Ludwig Erhard, outlines and defends the Ministry’s views on the way in which European integration should proceed.
On 2 June 1955, Christian de Margerie, French Chargé d’Affaires to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) forwards to Christian Pineau, French Foreign Minister, a telegram in which he comments on the German parliamentary debates on the European Atomic Energy Community and the proposed Common Market.
On 19 January 1956, the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, issues to Members of his Government a Directive on the European policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
On 14 May 1956, Walter Hallstein, State Secretary at the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address to the members of the American Club in Bonn in which he sets out German priorities concerning the revival of European integration, namely political integration, the abolition of central economic planning, the rule of law and equal treatment for all countries.
In October 1956, Ludwig Erhard, West German Minister for Economic Affairs, forwards to all the Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) a personal note in which he defends his personal views on European integration and warns against the direction taken at the Val Duchesse negotiations.