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

66
Seung-Ryeol Kim
2) the Territoires d'Outre-Mer (TOM), which referred to all overseas areas
which had formerly been colonies (about 25 million inhabitants);
3) the Territoires associés, which meant the mandates Cameroon and Togo, administered
under the supervision of the trustee council of the UN (altogether
about 4 million inhabitants);
4) the Etats associés, which consisted of the protectorates Morocco, Tunisia and
Indochina (altogether 35,5 million inhabitants).
Together with the metropolitan France the DOM and the TOM overseas regions
and territories formed the constitutional association of the French Republic, which
was under the sovereignty of France (article 60 of the French 1946’s constitution).
The Union Française consisted of the French Republic and the “Territoires et Etats
associés”. 14
On 24 October 1952 the leader of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire
(MRP), Pierre Henri Teitgen, demonstrated how complex and sensitive the problem
of the relations of the Union Française with the supranational EPC was. He assumed
first that
”France was not only a European power but also a world power, whose interests
went beyond the framework of the European continent”*
and that the connection between the homeland and its overseas areas was “indivisible”.
He found the suggestion of the Council of Europe unacceptable that non-European
territories and states, which were in a constitutional relation with European states,
could not become full members, but only be associated. According to him this mere association
would loosen the connection of France with its overseas areas. 15 Teitgen
strove to find a solution which made it possible to drive supranational integration further
without endangering the Union Française. Just as Teitgen, the Gaullist Michel Debré
rejected the suggestions of the Council of Europe. Debré maintained that the French
African areas were to be included as full members into the EPC, that the EPC should
not have decision-making powers over member states’ foreign policies, and that it
should be constructed in a loose form. As a matter of fact, if the EPC were vested with
greater powers, it could intervene in the affairs of the French overseas areas. 16
In the plenary session of the ad hoc Assembly on 7 January 1953, the French
Senegalese Léopold Sédar Senghor argued that the French overseas areas should be
included into the EPC. For Senghor, a convinced supporter of the idea “Eurafrika”,
it was incomprehensible that the TOM, which were an integrated constituent of the
French Republic, should be excluded from the EPC. Their exclusion risked alternative
developments, namely independence from France. These areas were ready to
14. Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Bonn (PAAA) II, Bd.889, AZ 224-41-03, p.160, Vermerk
über die Struktur der Union Française.
15. AN Papiers Bidault 42, Déclaration faite par Teitgen à la commission préconstituante, 24.10.1952.
16. PAAA II, Bd.854, AZ 240-10 Bd.1, Schwarz-Liebermann, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der Unterausschüsse
des Verfassungsausschusses vom 3.-4. Dezember 1952; PAAA II, Bd.889, AZ
224-41-03, p.157, C.F. Ophüls, Einbeziehung der überseeischen Gebiete (Union Française) vom
30.5.1953.