In this interview, Hans-August Lücker, former adviser to Walter Hallstein and rapporteur on the Rome Treaties for the Bundestag in 1957, recalls the personality and working methods of Walter Hallstein, Junior Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and those of Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and President of the Intergovernmental Conference, held in Val Duchesse, on the Common Market and Euratom.
‘One, two, three.’ On 17 February 1957, referring to the negotiations held in Val Duchesse by the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on the Common Market and Euratom, the cartoonist, Fritz Behrendt, emphasises the role played by Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Conference, to revive European integration and lead the negotiations to a successful conclusion under the curious eye of US and Soviet observers.
On 12 September 1952, the French daily newspaper Le Monde comments on the appointment of Paul-Henri Spaak as President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community in Strasbourg.
On 30 January 1957, Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, assesses the progress made in the negotiations between the Six on the possible association of the overseas countries and territories (OCTs) with the European Economic Community (EEC).
In this interview, Hubert Ehring, former Director of the Legal Service of the Special Council of Ministers of the Secretariat of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and member of the of the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, describes the role played by Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and President of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, during the Val Duchesse negotiations.
‘… if you carry on going nowhere like that, you Father Christmases! …*' On 11 December 1951, given the United Kingdom's refusal to take part in the Schuman Plan, and disappointed at the ineffectiveness of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in furthering the European unification process, Paul-Henri Spaak resigns from his post as President of the Consultative Assembly. * Editor’s note: We have put the words ‘Father Christmases’ into Mr Spaak’s mouth to add a touch of Christmas spirit to our front page.
In August 1950, Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, Paul Reynaud, Winston Churchill and Robert Schuman attend the Assembly’s second sitting, held in Strasbourg.
View of part of the Belgian delegation on 28 January 1957 in Val Duchesse for the negotiations of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom. From left to right: Albert Hupperts, Joseph Van Der Meulen (sitting behind) and Paul-Henri Spaak.
On 23 November 1951, the French daily newspaper Le Populaire publishes an article in which Paul-Henri Spaak outlines the United States’ attitude towards German rearmament.