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

8
Johnny Laursen
pean market schism between The Six and The Seven throughout the 1960's. Juhana
Aunesluoma’s contribution An Elusive Partnership: Europe, Economic Co-operation
and British Policy towards Scandinavia 1945-51 analyses the perceptions and
aims in the British Scandinavian policy and in the establishment of the so-called
Uniscan co-operation between the UK, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. For a brief
moment in 1949 the Uniscan had potential to achieve more than the eventual formless
consultations. This study of Uniscan allows a glimpse of the perceptions of
many British and Scandinavian decision-makers in the 1950’s. In this sense it is an
important contribution to the pre-history of EFTA.
Of course the history of European integration is not limited to the history of the
European Communities. On the one hand the integration process exerted an influence
that went far beyond the tariff wall of the EEC. The creation of the Schuman
Plan and the EEC became important factors for other European states such as
Greece, Portugal and Austria. On the other hand, the influence worked also the other
way round. Two of the most momentous events for the development of the European
Communities was when the British decided first to stay aloof and later on to join
the EEC. As today the question of enlargement of the European Communities did
not only pose a challenge to the Community in terms of widening, but touched
upon the balance of power between states and institutions, upon decision-making
procedures and policies. Is it actually possible to explain the development of the
EEC without evoking the question of the British EEC-membership hovering over
the organisation throughout the 1960’s? The question of enlargement has been one
of the most dynamic and conflict-ridden factors in the history of the Community
during its existence. But it is also an issue which makes it necessary to redefine the
research questions designed for the study of the 1950’s. While the 1950’s might
shed light on why nation states join forces and cede sovereignty – or not – creating
a supranational community, the rise of the enlargement question from 1961 onwards
shifts the question to why nation states should decide to join an already existing
supranational co-operation with an established institutional structure and a
fixed body of law. Archive-based historical research has in later years begun to till
this land. Hopefully the next few years will see the publication of historical studies
of the first successful enlargement of the EC in 1972-73 based on primary sources.
The implications cannot yet be clearly seen. The many variants of integration theory
will also hopefully receive new stimulus from these research results. It is a real
challenge to the many more or less theoretical efforts to come to grasp the integration
process and the nature of the ever closer union trying to incorporate the changing
dynamics and factors as the community grew from six to fifteen nation states.
Perhaps it would require two sets of theory: one explaining why nation states
should come together and create a supranational community and the other analysing
why nation states should join such a community created after the designs of
others.
Another challenge to the history of European integration is the progress of the
archive-based studies of community policies made into the field former monopolised
by policy studies. In recent years researchers have broadened our knowledge