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The Reliable Ally: Germany Supports Spain's European Integration Efforts 39
to notice the politically explosive nature of a close German-Spanish co-operation in
European questions, as the Federal Government typically enough preferred to proceed
“as discreetly as possible” with its commitment. 7
After Spain’s association with the OEEC was achieved in January 1958, the
Federal Government thought it important to continue promoting the relations between
the OEEC and Spain. In personal talks, the German minister of Economics
Ludwig Erhard encouraged the Spanish minister of Commerce Alberto Ullastres to
intensify the integration efforts and affirmed that the Federal Government was willing
“to help Spain effectively (…) and to see to it that the other OEEC powers
would do the same”. 8 When in 20 July 1959 Spain finally became the 18th full
member of the OEEC, the German delegate to the OEEC declared in the name of
his government, that only with the accession of Spain that was culturally, economically
and politically a vital part of Europe, the OEEC actually deserved the name of
a European institution. 9
Spain’s integration efforts reached a decisive stage, when Foreign minister
Castiella after careful consideration applied for association to the EEC on 9 February
1962. 10 The Federal Government was not caught unprepared by this development;
after all the Federal ministry of Foreign affairs had started to ponder “on the
political and economic aspects of Spain’s entry into the EEC” at the end of January
1962. 11 As the Federal ministry of Foreign affairs always had pleaded for a really
close connection of Spain to Europe, and as Foreign minister Heinrich von Brentano
had already stressed the possibility of association with the EEC in 1958, Castiella’s
letter was very well received. 12 Nonetheless the German reaction towards
Spain was not euphoric at all, but on the contrary rather restrained.
7. PAAA Referat (Ref.) 412/234: “Allgemeine Instruktionen für Botschafter Karl Heinrich Knappstein”, 7
September 1956.
8. PAAA Ref. 206/88: “Unterredung mit Bundesminister Erhard”, minutes by the of which intentions
were really hidden German ambassador to Madrid, Wolfgang Freiherr von Welck, 6 May 1959.
9. BA B 102/11150: Report by ambassador Sebastian Werkmeister, head of the German delegation
to the OEEC, to the Federal ministry of Foreign affairs, 23 July 1959.
10. The wording of the application is reproduced in English in F. GUIRAO, Association or Trade
Agreement? Spain and the EEC, 1957-64, in: Journal of European Integration History, Vol.3/
1(1997), pp.103-120. Guirao (p.120) looks into the question of which really intentions were hidden
behind the wording of the application. On the genesis of the Spanish application also see F.
GUIRAO, The Origins and Nature of the First Spanish Application to the European Economic
Community, in: La Unión Europea en los albores de un nuevo siglo, Madrid, 1997, pp.31-45.
11. This was the title of a report by Ministerialdirektor Josef Jansen on 22 January 1962; PAAA Ref.
206/167. No indication has been found that the Germans were directly involved in deciding on the
Spanish application and its formulation. It is however conspicuous, that the wording of the Spanish
application practically corresponds verbatim with formulations found in the records of the Federal
ministry of Foreign affairs.
12. On the statements of von Brentano, see PAAA Ref. 206/163: “Besuch des Bundesministers des
Auswärtigen Amtes in Spanien, here: Spanien und die EWG”, record by Ulrich von Rhamm, official
at the Federal ministry of Foreign affairs, Bonn, 17 March 1958. The minister had been advised
to show greatest restraint on questions concerning the EEC. On the positive statement of the
Federal ministry of Foreign affairs concerning the actual Spanish application, see PAAA Ref. 206/
167: “Spaniens Antrag auf Assoziierung an die EWG”, record by Jansen, 15 February 1962.