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JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION HISTORY REVUE D’HISTOIRE DE L’INTÉGRATION EUROPÉENNE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR GESCHICHTE DER EUROPÄISCHEN INTEGRATION edited by the Groupe de liaison des professeurs d’histoire contemporaine auprès de la Commission européenne 2003, Volume 9, Number 2 The Hague Summit of 1969 The Liaison Committee of Historians came into being in 1982 as a result of an important international symposium that the Commission had organized in Luxembourg to launch historical research on Euro- pean integration. The committee is composed of historians of the European Union member countries who work on contemporary history. The Liaison Committee: – gathers and conveys information about work on European history after the Second World War; – advises the European Union on research projects concerning contemporary European history. Thus, the Liaison Committee was commissioned to make publicly available the archives of the Community institutions; – enables researchers to make better use of the archival sources; – promotes research meetings to get an update of work in progress and to stimulate new research: seven research conferences have been organized and their proceedings published. The Journal of European Integration History – Revue d’histoire de l’intégration européenne – Zeitschrift für Geschichte der europäischen Integration is in line with the preoccupations of the Liaison Committee. Being the first history journal to deal exclusively with the history of European Integration, the Journal offers the increasing number of young historians devoting their research to contemporary Europe, a permanent forum. The Liaison Committee is supported by the European Commission, but works completely independ- ently and according to historians’ critical method. ❋ Le Groupe de liaison des professeurs d’histoire contemporaine auprès de la Commission des Communautés européennes s’est constitué en 1982 à la suite d’un grand colloque que la Commis- sion avait organisé à Luxembourg pour lancer la recherche historique sur la construction européenne. Il regroupe des professeurs d’université des pays membres de l’Union européenne, spé- cialistes d’histoire contemporaine. Le Groupe de liaison a pour mission: – de diffuser l’information sur les travaux portant sur l’histoire de l’Europe après la Seconde Guerre mondiale; – de conseiller l’Union européenne sur les actions scientifiques à entreprendre avec son appui; ainsi le Groupe de liaison a assuré une mission concernant la mise à la disposition du public des archi- ves des institutions communautaires; – d’aider à une meilleure utilisation par les chercheurs des moyens de recherche mis à leur disposi- tion (archives, sources orales...); – d’encourager des rencontres scientifiques afin de faire le point sur les connaissances acquises et de susciter de nouvelles recherches: sept grands colloques ont été organisés et leurs actes publiés. L’édition du Journal of European Integration History – Revue d’histoire de l’intégration européenne – Zeitschrift für Geschichte der europäischen Integration se situe dans le droit fil des préoccupati- ons du Groupe de liaison. Première revue d’histoire à se consacrer exclusivement à l’histoire de la construction européenne, le Journal se propose de fournir un forum permanent au nombre crois- sant de jeunes historiens vouant leurs recherches à l’Europe contemporaine. Le Groupe de liaison bénéficie du soutien de la Commission européenne. Ses colloques et publica- tions se font en toute indépendance et conformément à la méthode critique qui est celle des historiens. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION HISTORY REVUE D’HISTOIRE DE L’INTÉGRATION EUROPÉENNE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR GESCHICHTE DER EUROPÄISCHEN INTEGRATION 2003, Volume 9, Number 2 Jan VAN DER HARST, coordinator Jan VAN DER HARST The 1969 Hague Summit: a New Start for Europe?......................................... 5 N. Piers LUDLOW An Opportunity or a Threat? The European Commission and The Hague Council of December 1969.............. 11 Anjo HARRYVAN and Jan VAN DER HARST Swan Song or Cock Crow? The Netherlands and the Hague Conference of December 1969 ................... 27 Jérôme WILSON Négocier la relance européenne: les Belges et le sommet de La Haye............................................................... 41 Claudia HIEPEL In Search of the Greatest Common Denominator. Germany and the Hague Summit Conference 1969....................................... 62 Marie-Thérèse BITSCH Le sommet de La Haye. L’initiative française, ses finalités et ses limites ............................................ 83 Maria Eleonora GUASCONI Italy and the Hague Conference of December 1969 ................................... 101 Alan S. MILWARD The Hague Conference of 1969 and the United Kingdom’s Accession to the European Economic Community ..................................... 117 Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen ............................. 127 Abstracts – Résumés – Zusammenfassungen............................................... 147 Contributors - Auteurs - Autoren ................................................................. 157 Books received – Livres reçus – Eingegangene Bücher .............................. 159 Editorial notice Articles for inclusion in this journal may be submitted at any time. The editorial board will then arrange for the article to be refereed. Articles should not be longer than 6000 words, footnotes included. They may be in English, French or German. Articles submitted to the Journal should be original contributions and not be submitted to any other publication at the same time as to the Journal of European Integration History. Authors should retain a copy of their article. The publisher and editors cannot accept responsibility for loss of or damage to authors’ typescripts or disks. The accuracy of, and views expressed in articles and reviews are the sole responsibility of the authors. Authors should ensure that typescripts conform with the journal style. Prospective contributors should obtain further guidelines from the Editorial Secretariat. Articles, reviews, communications relating to articles and books for review should be sent to the Editorial Secretariat. Citation The Journal of European Integration History may be cited as follows: JEIH, (Year)/(Number), (Page). ISSN 0947-9511 © 2003 NOMOS Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden and the Groupe de liaison des professeurs d’histoire contemporaine auprès de la Commission européenne. Printed in Germany. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publishers. 5 The 1969 Hague Summit: a New Start for Europe? by Jan van der Harst It was only within a stone’s throw from the place where I lived that the Hague summit of December 1969 took place. The event in the nearby Ridderzaal brought together the most distinguished political leaders at a crucial moment in post-war European development. Since then, ‘The Hague’ has been portrayed as a major breakthrough and as the most successful European conference since Messina 1955, heralding UK membership and extending EC responsibilities to foreign and monetary affairs. All this failed to impress the 11-year-old boy who I was at that time. Worse still, the conference totally escaped my attention, as did another remarkable event, which occurred simultaneously, the biggest federalist demonstration ever held. Close to the venue of the European Council – avant la lettre – meeting a group of about one thousand European federalists marched through the centre of The Hague, clashing with the police and shouting for the need to revitalise Europe after years of stagnation. To attract attention to their cause, they carried a coffin with them: Europe was dead and waited for the resurrection which only the government leaders could provide. In this special issue on the 1969 Hague summit an attempt is made towards answering the question to what extent the protagonists Willy Brandt, Piet De Jong, Gaston Eyskens, Georges Pompidou, Mariano Rumor and Pierre Werner have been capable of realising such a far-reaching European re-launch after the ill-fated De Gaulle period. Was The Hague really a ‘watershed’ or ‘turning-point’ in post-war European history, as it has been termed by several authors,1 or is this an overrated conclusion? What is the true significance of The Hague, both in the short and in the longer term? In the historical literature so far only scant efforts have been made towards answering these questions.2 In this volume, historians from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have investigated their respective government’s position concerning The Hague, before, during and immediately after the two-day conference. In addition, the policies of the European Commission and the United Kingdom have been scrutinised, the former as an active participant at the meeting – although only present on the second day – the latter still waiting in the wings. For mainly practical reasons we have not included all member states and applicant countries involved in the process. Luxembourg is excluded here, because on many issues – 1. E.g. H. SIMONIAN, The Privileged Partnership: Franco-German Relations in the European Community, 1969-1984, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985, p.349; D. ARMSTRONG, L. LORNA and J. REDMOND, From Versailles to Maastricht. International Organisation in the Twentieth Century, Macmillan, London, 1996, p.164. 2. One of the rare