Introduction

Abstract

Today, in France, the Communauté Européene de Défense of 1950–54 is a taboo subject. Yet Mr Vredeling, then Dutch Defence Minister, was reported as saying in October 1976 that a revival of the idea of a European Defence Community (EDC), to be a forerunner rather than a consequence of European political union, was worth consideration.¹ In Belgium, too, from time to time, political parties have hinted at the idea of some form of a European Defence Community. Commentators in the German and Italian press still refer to the EDC from time to time, and it persists as a perennial attraction to many of the United Kingdom’s ‘New Federalists’.