Thanks to Alcide De Gasperi’s personal insistence, Article 38 of the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC) refers to the setting up of a European federation or confederation.

On 4 April 1955, following the failure of the European Defence Community (EDC), Johan Willem Beyen, Netherlands Foreign Minister, forwards to his Belgian and Luxembourgish counterparts, Paul-Henri Spaak and Joseph Bech, a memorandum in which he proposes the revival of European integration through general, rather than sectoral, economic integration as part of a common market.

On 30 November 1954, Jean Monnet, dismayed at the failure of the proposed European Defence Community (EDC), explains to the Members of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) why he will not be asking the governments of the Six to renew his term of office as President of the ECSC High Authority.

On 18 September 1954, commenting on the recent failure of the European Defence Community (EDC), the Antwerp daily newspaper La Métropole calls for a revival of the process to build a supranational Europe in which the three Benelux countries are invited to play the principal roles.

On 2 February 1953, Paul Struye, Belgian Member of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), comments on the United States’ position on the proposed European Defence Community (EDC) and describes the role of German forces in the future European army.

In the first part of the first day of the seminar, chaired by Simon Usherwood from the University of Surrey, Valentina Vardabasso from Paris I University looks at the position taken by the Italian Communist Party on the European Defence Community (EDC). Patrick Bredebach from the Goethe University Frankfurt describes the European policy of German Social Democracy in the 1950s.

In this interview, Paul Collowald, former journalist for the daily newspaper Le Nouvel Alsacien and former correspondent for European affairs for the daily newspaper Le Monde in Alsace, describes the historical context in which the plan for a European Defence Community (EDC) was conceived and considers the vote in the French National Assembly against the ratification of the Treaty establishing the EDC.

In this interview, Jean-Pierre Gouzy, former Secretary-General of the French Union of Federalists and former member of the Federal Committee of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), discusses the objectives and activities of the French Union of Federalists, in particular when debates were being held regarding the European Defence Community (EDC).

‘EDC. NATO. Adenauer: “It’s not a threat — I’m telling you that you can choose one or the other!”’ In 1954, in the East German satirical magazine Eulenspiegel, as debates are held on the creation of a European Defence Community, cartoonist Harri Parschau deplores the threat facing France (Marianne) in the light of the plan for German rearmament advocated by Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The two soldiers presented by the West German Chancellor strangely resemble the soldiers of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, and their threatening appearance is emphasised by the fact that they are pointing their guns at Marianne. The possible revival of the West German army within the EDC or NATO does not augur well for France’s future and brings back the spectre of war.

On 16 February 1955, Sir Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, writes to Sir Gladwyn Jebb, British Ambassador to Paris, outlining the British position on the future role of Western European Union (WEU). The letter identifies the main tasks of the organisation and emphasises that, for its successful development, WEU should remain an intergovernmental organisation and should not attempt to become a supranational community on the model of the European Defence Community (EDC). WEU should not attempt to take action which duplicates or cuts across the work of existing organisations. For instance, in the military sphere, it should rely on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s military authorities for information and advice. Additionally, the British emphasise their close relationship with the United States, insisting that in the development of WEU a proper balance must be maintained between the needs of the organisation itself and those of the wider Atlantic community.