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

y Jan van der Harst 9Netherlands largely shared Germany’s ambitions, strongly emphasising the needfor British entrance and slowing the urge for monetary union. From Anjo Harryvanand Jan Van der Harst’s contribution, it appears that interpretation number three(above) particularly applied to the Dutch position. At the end of the meeting PietDe Jong and Joseph Luns proved ambivalent and insecure, but their mood soonchanged when the positive after-effects of The Hague became visible, including thegranting of new powers to the EP. Italy, as shown by Eleonora Guasconi, scored onthe issues of British membership and social policy, but made concessions onagricultural financing. Britain became aware that France no longer blockedenlargement but, as said above, the terms on ‘completion’ were, in the longerperspective, unsatisfactory to London. For the Commission, the obtaining of ownresources was a substantial result, but president Jean Rey could not prevent theHague conference from opening a new episode in the development of ‘summitry’,eventually resulting in the creation of the European Council in 1974. Piers Ludlowrightly concludes that the Commission’s future “did not look like being a rapidadvance to wide-ranging political power”. All in all, the summit’s outcome was apackage deal with gains and losses for all the parties involved. There could be notalk of an evident, undisputed winner.Yet, if we need to mention one, then we might opt for precisely themember-country not dealt with in this volume. Luxembourg was in favour ofcompletion and enlargement, but cautious – at least more ‘economist’ oriented thanneighbour Belgium – as far as monetary union was concerned. Hence, the carefullydrafted EMU provisions in the final communiqué were fully compatible withLuxembourg’s ambitions on this score. Moreover, Prime minister Werner wasappointed chairman of the prestigious committee charged with developing a planon economic and monetary union. Although only modestly involved in thediscussions with his colleagues, the leader of the smallest country had every reasonto look back on the meeting with satisfaction. However, as said above, the definitestory on Luxembourg and The Hague has yet to be written.