Walter Hallstein was born in Germany in 1901. After presiding over
the German delegation that negotiated the Plan Schuman, 1st January
1958 he became the first president of the European Commission. He
maintained in that post until 1968.
As president of the European
Commission, Hallstein worked towards a rapid realisation of the Common
Market. His energetic enthusiasm and his powers of persuasion furthered
the cause of integration even beyond the period of his presidency.
However, the speed of unification during the so-called Hallstein Period
was legendary.
During his mandate, De
Gaulle vetoed British accesion to the EEC. In 1965, a proposition
of Hallstein, supported by the European Parliament, on the founding
of own funds of the Community was also vetoed by the French president.
The crisis of the "empty chair" followed. The absence of
the French Ministers paralysed the Community. The Luxembourg Compromise
put an end to the crisis.
Walter Hallstein died in
1982.
Juan Carlos Ocaña
(1)
Walter Hallstein, Russia (1962)
One of the major arguments
of Soviet propaganda alleges that the Common Market is aggravating
the contradictions of the capitalist world, and is precipitating a
relentless struggle for position in the European market among rival
monopolistic groups.
A strange argument indeed.
What lies behind the growing interpenetration in the internal market
of the Community, which has brought about an increase of 73 per cent
in internal trade in four years, an increase of 19 per cent in the
gross national product of the Community, and an increase of 29 per
cent in industrial production? Does this look like a murderous struggle
for position among monopolies? How can this argument be reconciled
with the freely expressed aspirations of our European neighbours ...
to join the Common Market or to be associated with it in one form
or another?
The basic meaning of the
attacks made against us is that the Soviet leaders have clearly recognised,
albeit very late in the day, that something has happened, with unexpected
speed and surprising success, which is absolutely impossible according
to Marxist-Leninist theory. According to this theory capitalist states
cannot overcome their differences and unite; such a union cannot create
conditions for long-term economic planning covering large areas and
ensuring stability and security in face of crises; these phenomena
cannot be the forerunners of an economic system that might one day
include the whole free world.
All this is impossible,
in the Communist mind, not only for theoretical reasons, but for practical
ones as well. It is impossible because the Eastern bloc has now reached
a state of crisis in its economic evolution which is causing increasing
anxiety among Soviet leaders. They are not only concerned with a crisis
in the Soviet economy itself . . . they are also concerned, ironically,
with a crisis of integration, as shown by the tortured, strained and
insipid text of the latest Comecon resolution.
(2)
Walter
Hallstein, A New Path to Peaceful Union (1962)
What sort of government
is the government which we see in embryo in the European Economic
Community? It is not, as I said, a further development of normal diplomatic
methods of consultation and co-operation as seen in traditional international
organisations. Instead, the fusion of interests in the European Community
is being achieved through a new
mechanism of institutions which it is only a slight exaggeration to
call a constitutional framework.
Of course, the European
Community is not just a new power-bloc or a new coalition, although
it has its pride, it is not a swollen version of 19th century nationalism,
taking a continent rather than a country as its basis. In fact, it
is the concrete embodiment of a new approach to the relations between
states. It is not merely international: it is not yet fully federal.
But
it is an attempt to build on the federal pattern a democratically
constituted Europe - what I have called elsewhere a federation in
the making.
No practical statesman
would I think be prepared to endorse unreservedly the doctrine of
the separation of powers: but classical democratic theory, with its
division of the organs of government into executive, legislative and
judiciary, certainly underlines the constitutional structure of the
European Economic Community. The Executive is the Commission - nine
men, many of them former ministers in national governments, who are
now no longer national, but European, responsible to the Community
as a whole. They are not permitted to take national instructions,
and once appointed for their term of office by common agreement of
the member governments, they can only be removed by a vote of no confidence
from the Community Parliament, of which I shall speak in a moment.
The Commission has broadly three main tasks. First, it draws up proposals
to be decided by the Council of Ministers. Secondly, it watches over
the execution of the Treaty and may call firms and governments to
account. Thirdly, it mediates between the governments and seeks to
reconcile national interests with the Community interests; and a fourth
task, whose importance is growing, is that of executing those decisions
of detail which for the sake of rapid and impartial treatment it is
empowered to take itself.
History
of the European Union: Integration Process and European Citizenship
