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

5The 1969 Hague Summit: a New Start for Europe?by Jan van der HarstIt was only within a stone’s throw from the place where I lived that the Haguesummit of December 1969 took place. The event in the nearby Ridderzaal broughttogether the most distinguished political leaders at a crucial moment in post-warEuropean development. Since then, ‘The Hague’ has been portrayed as a majorbreakthrough and as the most successful European conference since Messina 1955,heralding UK membership and extending EC responsibilities to foreign andmonetary affairs. All this failed to impress the 11-year-old boy who I was at thattime. Worse still, the conference totally escaped my attention, as did anotherremarkable event, which occurred simultaneously, the biggest federalistdemonstration ever held. Close to the venue of the European Council – avant lalettre – meeting a group of about one thousand European federalists marchedthrough the centre of The Hague, clashing with the police and shouting for the needto revitalise Europe after years of stagnation. To attract attention to their cause, theycarried a coffin with them: Europe was dead and waited for the resurrection whichonly the government leaders could provide.In this special issue on the 1969 Hague summit an attempt is made towardsanswering the question to what extent the protagonists Willy Brandt, Piet De Jong,Gaston Eyskens, Georges Pompidou, Mariano Rumor and Pierre Werner have beencapable of realising such a far-reaching European re-launch after the ill-fated DeGaulle period. Was The Hague really a ‘watershed’ or ‘turning-point’ in post-warEuropean history, as it has been termed by several authors, 1 or is this an overratedconclusion? What is the true significance of The Hague, both in the short and in thelonger term? In the historical literature so far only scant efforts have been madetowards answering these questions. 2In this volume, historians from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and theNetherlands have investigated their respective government’s position concerningThe Hague, before, during and immediately after the two-day conference. Inaddition, the policies of the European Commission and the United Kingdom havebeen scrutinised, the former as an active participant at the meeting – although onlypresent on the second day – the latter still waiting in the wings. For mainlypractical reasons we have not included all member states and applicant countriesinvolved in the process. Luxembourg is excluded here, because on many issues –1. E.g. H. SIMONIAN, The Privileged Partnership: Franco-German Relations in the EuropeanCommunity, 1969-1984, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985, p.349; D. ARMSTRONG, L. LORNAand J. REDMOND, From Versailles to Maastricht. International Organisation in the TwentiethCentury, Macmillan, London, 1996, p.164.2. One of the rare exceptions is M.-T. BITSCH, Le sommet de la Haye. La mise en route de la relancede 1969, in: W. LOTH (ed.), Crises and Compromises: the European Project, 1963-1969, Nomos,Baden Baden, 2001, pp.539-565. In the conclusions of this article, the author analyses the importanceof the summit by making a comparison between Messina 1955 and The Hague 1969.