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

85
In Quest of Time, Protection and Approval:
France and the Claims for Social Harmonization in
the European Economic Community, 1955-56
Lise Rye Svartvatn
The development of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the 1960s illustrates
how France solved a national problem by means of a European solution. 1 By
making France’s participation in the European Economic Community (EEC) conditional
on the setting up of a common agricultural market and a common agricultural
policy in accordance with French preferences, the country succeeded in giving
French surplus production new outlets. 2 The French position during the negotiations
that led to the Treaty of Rome indicates that there were similar ambitions
behind the country’s claims for social harmonization. France was not the only
country calling for social harmonization. However, while the Benelux countries
demanded a harmonization of the social policies of the participating countries,
France called for a harmonization of working regulations, claiming that the diversity
in existing national regulations caused unequal terms of competition. More
precisely, France demanded that all members of the future common market signed
and ensured the effective application of the International Labour Organization’s
(ILO) convention on equal pay for men and women. She also demanded the introduction
of uniform overtime pay for hours exceeding an agreed number and the
harmonization of paid holiday schemes.
This article argues that the French claims for social harmonization were
launched in order to secure time, protection and approval. When first presented at
the Messina conference in early June 1955, the claims formed part of a scheme that
aimed to gain time for a government unable to take a stand on the proposed common
market. They were sustained in order to secure continued protection for
French industry. Continued protection was in turn instrumental in securing the National
Assembly’s approval of the government’s pro-EEC policy. Maintenance of
protection simultaneously formed part of a superior agenda aiming at the modernization
of the French industrial structure. France raised the stakes in order to get her
own way. In October 1956 this led to a deadlock in the negotiations. Due to Germany’s
will and ability to accommodate the French claims, France finally obtained an
agreement that rendered a completion of the negotiations possible.
A central question in studies of French European policy in this period has been
why France took an interest in the new proposals for further integration that ap-
1. This article originated as a paper presented at the workshop “The Nordic Countries and West
European Economic Integration up to the EFTA period” in Turku (Åbo), September 1999. I thank
the participants, the anonymous reviewers, Frances M. B. Lynch, Hans Otto Frøland and Siri Rye
Salvesen for helpful suggestions.
2. Centre des Archives Contemporaines (CAC), Secrétariat général du Comité interministériel pour
les questions de coopération économique européenne (SGCI) 771468, Art.89, Note sur les objectifs
de la France dans la politique agricole commune, 03.11.61.