On 15 April 1948, Joseph Retinger, Secretary-General of the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, sends to Ronald Mackay, Labour MP and leader of the British Section of the European Parliamentary Union (EPU), a letter notifying him of the reluctance of some European activists to give Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the Pan-European Movement and leader of the EPU, an overly conspicuous position at the Congress of Europe held in May in The Hague.