Pacte Europeen De Defense

So, as an introduction to the topic +++ the European Defence Community was a plan proposed by René Pleven in 1950. It was a plan proposed by the French prime minister as a response to the American call and demand for the rearmament of West Germany.

The inner goal of the treaty was to create a new pan-European defence force as an alternative of the NATO. It was meant to harness Germany’s military potential in case of conflicts with the soviet bloc. The treaty was written during a strong cold war mood.

The EDC was a military alignment of six Western European states West Germany, France, Italy, and the Benelux countries.

The treaty was signed in 1952 (27 of may) but never went into effect.

. A treaty was concluded in 1952, but the French parliament's refusal to ratify the treaty in 1954 brought an end to the project. One consequence of the French action was the decision in 1955 to rearm West Germany and allow its entry into NATO Organization settled by the treaty:

The EDC would have established a pan European military system, divided into national components.

It was planned that every countries (except Germany) would in terms of armament and troops reports to their own governments. Germany had to report to the EDC due to the fear of a return of German militarism. We have to keep in mind that the WWII ended less than ten years ago and Europeans had little confidence in German’s government. Then, German government would not have the control of its own troops.

Mr Pleven added to the treaty that in the event of its rejection that the German government would have control its own troops in any case (the treaty didn’t provide such a solution in case of its acceptance).

The EDC also provided a common budget arms and institution to lead the pan-European army.

Completer:

The European Defence Community (E.D.C.) was an ambitious

initiative in the first years of the 1950s. Leading European countries had

different foreign policy agendas towards it. The E.D.C. could have been a

crucial milestone on the long path towards European integration. However,

the failure to ratify its agreement by the French Parliament in 1954 left this

project of defence integration stillborn - but paved the way for another

solution for the rearmament of Germany: the Western European Union

(WEU), as a sub-group of NATO. Nevertheless, the dormant ideal, to

contribute to a “European Army” later became one of the ultimate goals of the

European Union.

The main argument of this paper is as follows: The E.D.C.

cannot be regarded as an initiative originating only from the European

countries. It can best be evaluated within the framework of general U.S.

policies towards Europe and the U.S. global agenda in the first years of

the Cold War era. One can trace the U.S. influence from the very first

stages of the E.D.C. negotiations. Even in the agreement of the E.D.C.,

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