Abstract
The grouping together of parliamentarians by political groups in the General Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was quite simply revolutionary. The mandate of those MPs nominated by national parliaments came from voters in member states; it gave them the right to represent them politically at home. The basic treaties for the European Communities provided a distribution of the seats only by member states. It had evidently been assumed that the Assembly would in practice divide up along national lines. The fact that this did not happen is why the Assembly became a politically influential body and, after the founding of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Community (EAC), would become the European Parliament.
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References
Published in the Journal Officiel of the European Coal and Steel Community, 21 July 1953.
Theo Stammen, Parteien in Europa, München 1977, p. 254 et seq.
Cf. Karl Josef Hahn/Friedrich Fugmann, Die Europäische Christlich-Demokratische Union zwischen europäischem Anspruch und nationalen Realitäten, in: Zusamenarbeit der Parteien in Westeuropa. Auf dem Weg zu einer neuen politischen Infrastruktur?, Institut für Europäische Politik, Bonn 1976, pp. 304–331.
Article 1 of the By-laws of the Political Committee of the Christian-Democratic Parties from the Member states of the European Communities, 7 April 1972; reproduced in: Zusammenarbeit der Parteien, p. 338 et seq.
Arnaldo Ferragni, Secretary General of the CD-Group, in a latter to Karl-Josef Hahn, Deputy Secretary General of the EUCD, 4 January 1972, ACDP IX-004-081.
Cf. the articles by Egon Klepsch (p. 31 et seq.), Arnaldo Ferragni (p. 84 et seq.) and Josef Müller (p. 111 et seq.) in: Liber Amicorum. Erinnerungen an Hans-August Lücker zum 70. Geburtstag, Bonn (1985).
Minutes of the meeting from 12 June 1974 in Strasbourg, ACDP IX-001-008/1.
Walter Hallstein, former President of the EEC Commission (1958–1968) had published a book about his experiences and the political philosophy underlying his work in the Community under the significant title Der Unvollendete Bundesstaat (‘The Unfinished Federal State’) Düsseldorf 1969; English: Europe in the Making, Allen and Unwin, 1972.
Since 1967 the Dutch parties represented in the Christian Democratic Group (KVP, CHU and ARP), who were competitors at home and who normally did not follow the same political line, worked together, ‘more and more’, and established as a consequence of their common membership within the EUCD, a ‘contact committee’; on 17 June 1972, a ‘strategy paper’ was presented to this committee claiming ‘the formation of one party’; this project was realised in 1977 with the foundation of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), cf. ACDPIX-004-100/8.
The text was published in different languages by the CD-Group of the European Parliament in CD-Europa on 16 July 1970; cf. ACDP IX-001-055/2.
Cf. Karl-Heinz Nassmacher, Demokratisierung der Europaischen Gemeinschaften, Bonn, 1972.
ACDP IX-004-082.
Josef K. Hahn/Friedrich Fugman, p. 329.
Dossier sur la Formation d’un parti démocrate Chrétien européen, Doc 16/10.9.1975, ACDP IX-004-096.
Robert Houben, La formation d’un parti européen, ibid.
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© 1998 Thomas Jansen
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Jansen, T. (1998). The Christian Democratic Group in the European Parliament, 1952–1978. In: The European People’s Party. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333995297_6
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