journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

INTRODUCTION
Fernando Guirao
The historiography of European integration has traditionally focused on five central
questions – the emergence of the various European Communities, the process of
institution-building and policy consolidation of each community, the relations
among the Six, their relations with the United Kingdom, and the role played by the
United States. In recent years, the European countries left outside of the original
Six, and the problems they consequently faced, have received increasing attention.
The present volume of the Journal of European Integration History (JEIH) is an
attempt to cast further light on countries rarely examined in standard historical
accounts of European integration. The Editorial Board of the JEIH approved a special
volume under the general theme of “Peripheral countries and the Integration of
Europe” because it was interested in analysing how the less resourceful countries
among those excluded from the Treaty of Rome perceived, and reacted to the consequences
of exclusion. The concept of periphery adopted here is quite simple: it
concerns those countries that have received scant attention in historiographical
terms (or in some cases, have been totally ignored).
The case studies contained in this volume refer to Finland, Ireland, Norway,
Portugal, Spain and Turkey. While a wider range of countries would have been desirable,
the JEIH Editorial Board was restrained by the papers presented and the
outcome of the peer-review process. The time span covered varies from country to
country. For Ireland and Finland the period between the signature of the Treaty of
Rome and European Community (EC)/European Union (EU) membership is treated
as fully as the availability of archival sources permits. In the case of Norway, the
author covers the period 1948-73 with the intention of explaining the gap between
the Norwegian government, which successfully negotiated Community membership
by 1972, and the people’s decision to reject the accession terms in a referendum.
Regarding Portugal, the author deals with the country’s European integration
policies during and immediately after Salazar’s autocratic reign. The fact that access
to archives ends with the 1974 Revolution determined the author’s decision.
The Spanish experience between 1957 and 1967, when official Spain-European
Economie Community (EEC) negotiations began, is analysed from the German
viewpoint. Finally, in the contribution on Turkey, there is much historical background
that helps in understanding this country's present position vis-à-vis the
European Union. Why some governments thought that further was teh soution to
certain questions while others either ignored the problem or failed to appreciate the
need for a specific response has become an area of intense research activity in the
field of European integration history. Nor should it be taken for granted that the
governments of some countries on the periphery of Western Europe decided to join
the European Community at all. For a long time, many observers in these countries
had even questioned the need for institutional links of any kind. Specific circumstances,
of an economic, social and political nature, must have led the governments
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