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The Reliable Ally: Germany Supports Spain's European Integration Efforts 41
were thought to be inopportune. Thus statements made by foreign ministers in this panel
traditionally enjoyed the status of a personal comment made by the private individual,
but they were also regarded as representative of the opinion of the home government.
Therefore the statements of Merkatz were taken as seriously as those uttered by Federal
minister for Housing, Urban development and Environmental planning, Paul Lücke,
during his official mission in Madrid in June 1963.
Exactly like his cabinet colleague, Lücke as well did not call the favourable attitude
of the Federal Government into question: it was “more than equitable, that the
Spanish requests for association with the Common Market should be acknowledged
and complied with”, and that the Federal Government should “do its utmost
to back this application”. 17 Even Erhard had promised the Spanish minister of Industry
Gregorio López Bravo, who had come to Germany in order to seek “personal
advice from Prof. Erhard as the great authority”, that the Federal Republic would
continue supporting most strongly the Spanish application for association. 18 All in
all the German government representatives had been signalling in unison their support
of the Spanish application since it was put forward to the EEC authorities, support
which however had not yet materialised beyond the - vain - efforts to put
through a favourable reply to the application letter of 9 February 1962.
In the spring of 1964 the Federal Republic was given the opportunity to prove
the seriousness of its untiring declarations of support towards Spain. After the
Community institutions in 1962 had been dealing to a large extent with the British
application, temporarily dismissed in the beginning of 1963 because of the French
veto, the Spanish were anxious to prevent their issue from being forgotten. So they
asked the ambassadors of France and Germany in Madrid to intercede on behalf of
a quick decision in the EEC Council. Even before the Spanish ambassador to the
EEC in a letter on 14 February 1964 officially reminded the president of the Council
of the application, the German and French delegates prepared the ground by
pleading for a positive answer in the Committee of permanent representatives of
the EEC in Brussels. 19 Although the Federal Government was not very optimistic
about the prospects of success and had a long time been of the opinion that forcing
the debate would not be advisable in view of the negative attitude of Belgium, it
was henceforth beyond all question for them that Spain’s initiative should be sup-
17. PAAA Ref. 206/180: Report by ambassador von Welck to the Federal ministry of Foreign affairs,
19 June 1963.
18. PAAA Ref. 412/353: Record of 30 May 1963 by Werner Seldis, Director of the economic service
of the German embassy in Madrid, accompanying the Spanish minister of Industry on a journey to
the Federal Republic from 2 to 10 May 1963.
19. PAAA IA 4/281: Report by Otto von Stempel, in charge of matters concerning the European Coal
and Steel Community, EEC and Euratom at the ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 February 1964. The
account was drawn up on the occasion of the forthcoming journey of the President of the Bundestag
to Madrid. As it was written the very day, when Spain brought up again the issue of its 1962
application, without referring to it, it may be assumed that the Spanish action had not been arranged
with Bonn. Concerning the French-German co-operation, cf. B. ASCHMANN, Partner in der Protektion:
Die deutsch-französische Kooperation zugunsten einer EWG-Integration Spaniens, in:
Historische Mitteilungen, 12(1999), Heft 2., pp.262-274