On 1 September 1954, the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir publishes Paul-Henri Spaak’s reactions to the failure of the European Defence Community (EDC).
On 20 September 1954, the Central Committee of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) sharply criticises French policy for the failure of the European Defence Community (EDC) and calls for the creation of a federal Europe.
On 25 August 1951, the German Federal Government drafts a memorandum emphasising the urgent need to make progress on the fundamental issues associated with the establishment of the European Defence Community (EDC) and setting out the points on which an agreement in principle has been secured.
On 29 April 1953, the Minister President of Bavaria, Hans Ehard, gives a radio broadcast in which he deplores the slow process of ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC) in the Bundesrat (the second chamber of the Federal Parliament).
In 1954, the bulletin of the National Committee for the Defence of French Unity and the French Union leads with the serious economic consequences of the Treaty establishing a European Defence Community (EDC) and offers a point-by-point criticism of the arguments put forward by advocates of the Paris Treaty.
On 4 October 1954, after the French National Assembly refuses to ratify the Treaty on the European Defence Community (EDC), the Dutch daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk speculates on the question of European defence.
On 5 March 1954, French socialist politician Guy Mollet and Belgian socialist statesman Paul-Henri Spaak speak at a meeting held by the Mouvement Démocratique et Socialiste pour les États-Unis d’Europe (Democratic and Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe — MDSEUE) in Paris. Their addresses summarise their positions on the European Defence Community (EDC) and the EDC Treaty, especially regarding the creation of a European army, disarmament, the defence and security of Europe, and the integration and reunification of Germany. Both addresses reveal examples of overlapping initiatives and constraints on the path towards European integration.
‘With or without the EDC … “German contingent … by the right … quick march!”’ On 19 August 1954, German cartoonist Ernst Maria Lang illustrates the fears of Pierre Mendès France, President of the French Council of Ministers and French Foreign Minister, at the proposed European Defence Community (EDC) and the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Despite the attempts of Mendès France to prevent the revival of a German army, it seems to be inevitable.
On 19 March 1953, German Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer gives an address to the Bundestag in which he declares his support for the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC).
On 17 December 1951, following the Strasbourg Conference attended by the Foreign Ministers of Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Walter Hallstein, German State Secretary, outlines the various points for negotiation with regard to the establishment of a European Defence Community (EDC).
