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

In Search of the Greatest Common Denominator 75At this stage, Willy Brandt included the European father figure Jean Monnet inthe preparations for the Conference. Monnet exerted a rather strong influence onthe German Chancellor on the eve of the Hague Summit. 61 As head of the ‘ActionCommittee for the United States of Europe’, which was joined by Willy Brandt inthe mid-sixties, Monnet tried to use his close contact with the now Head ofgovernment to intervene directly in the preparations for the conference. Just priorto the summit, he wrote two letters to Brandt, encouraging him to promote the oldAction Committee’s demands, which included the enlargement issue and theestablishment of the EMU. For that end, he proposed the installation of a EuropeanReserve Fund in which Germany would contribute a part of its currency reserves asan “instrument de la solidarité monétaire des pays de la Communauté”. 62In a personal meeting on 7 November, Monnet outlined his views, to whichBrandt showed a certain reserve due to the fact that the German minister ofEconomic affairs, Karl Schiller, had rejected these ideas. Schiller insisted on an‘economic’ approach of monetary matters, requiring the harmonisation of theEuropean economies as a first and most important step. 63 However, Brandt did notgive up on his plan. It seems as if he was convinced of having found a means ofexpressing Germany’s solidarity within the union. More interested in the politicalimplications of such a project, he did not really consider the underlying economicconcept. Therefore, he gave the task to Focke and Bahr in the Kanzleramt, toexamine the Monnet proposals with the aim of presenting them as his own ideas onthe Summit Conference. 64Already on 13 November, during an inter-ministerial meeting at theKanzleramt, the German positions for the summit conference had begun to takeshape. 65 The German agreement on completion became linked to certain conditionsin other areas, such as fixing a limit of costs for the Common Market, passing adeclaration of intent concerning the regulation of surplus production, full financingof the Community from its own resources in close connection with strengtheningEP’s competencies and, last but not least, a French concession on startingenlargement negotiations. With some flexibility, the German starting point wouldbe 1 April. All those present at the meeting welcomed a Foreign Office’s proposalthat was seen as a means of arriving at a solution on the sensitive enlargement issueand the reform of agricultural market rules. According to this proposal, the granting61. See G. BOSSUAT, Drei Wege nach dem Gipfel von Den Haag. Monnet, Brandt, Pompidou unddas Europa der 70er Jahre, in: A. WILKENS (ed.), Interessen verbinden. Jean Monnet und dieeuropäische Integration der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bouvier, Bonn, 1999, pp.353-386. K.FOCKE, Erinnerungen an Jean Monnet, ibid., pp.23-30.62. Jean Monnet to Chancellor Willy Brandt, 21 and 31 October 1969, German translation, in: WBA,Bestand Bundeskanzler und Bundesregierung 14.63. BAK, Bundeskanzleramt 6417, Vermerk über ein Gespräch des Herrn Bundeskanzlers mit demPräsidenten des Aktionskomitees Jean Monnet am 07.10.1969.64. WBA, Bestand Bundeskanzler und Bundesregierung 91, Vermerk betr. EWG-Gipfelkonferenz am02.12.1969, handwritten note of Brandt from 9 November 1969.65. PAAA, Referat I A 1, 1439, Interministerielle Besprechung unter Vorsitz Sts Bahr, Bundeskanzleramt,am 13.11.1969.