De Gaulle and Coudenove-Kalergi on Europe
The Charles de Gaulle Foundation organised a symposium entitled "De Gaulle, Coudenove-Kalergi, the Gaullists and Europe". The symposium was held on 28 January 2016 at the Palais Luxembourg in the Senate in Paris.
President of the French Committee of the Pan-European Union, Senator Jean Bizet, and the President of the International Pan-European Union, Alain Terrenoire, participated in the symposium with their speeches as eminent historians and witnesses. The whole programme was closed by the sppech of the President of the Pan-European Movement of Austria, the Archduke Charles of Habsburg.
De Gaulle, Richard Coudenove-Kalergi, the Gaullists and Europe
A witness to historical events, President Alain Terrenoire, recalled Charles de Gaulle's inspiration, concept and vision of Europe in a historical review.
The following are highlights from President Terrenoir's speech as published in European Letters of the Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi Society.
"The former head of France Libre had an ambitious but realistic view of Europe, as he did of other issues. He shared this vision, which he made public during the dark years of the Second World War, with that of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European Union, the oldest of the pro-European non-governmental organisations.
De Gaulle wanted, contrary to all other convictions, both those of the enthusiastic supporters of a supranational Europe and those of the opponents of European unification at the expense of sovereign states, and in accordance with the Treaty of Rome, that his ‘idea of France’ should first be reflected in a confederation of Europe, the mainstay of which would be ever closer Franco-German unification.
Fifty-four years after the rejection of the Fouchet Plan, which was supposed to bring about political unification as envisaged by de Gaulle, Europe has still not succeeded in developing a real foreign policy and managing the defence of its external borders in order to guarantee its independence and security.
Pressurised from the outside by the United States and from the inside by Great Britain, most of the former Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO before the successive enlargements of the European Union.
For most countries, these affiliations entailed a reduction in their defence budgets, to the benefit of a pro-American geopolitics and a defence that was essentially supported by NATO, i.e. by the United States. But how could we not rejoice that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were able to free themselves from Soviet oppression and join a Europe of freedom, democracy and human rights?
Great Britain's accession to the European Union, which General de Gaulle viewed with scepticism, had a twofold consequence: on the one hand, the European project was essentially transformed into a commercial and monetary free trade area regulated according to the liberal Anglo-Saxon culture, and on the other, the progress of its partners towards harmonising their economic, monetary, budgetary, fiscal and social policies was slowed down.
Despite all this, the European Union has managed to achieve a historic development by bringing together more than 500 million people peacefully in a project community in which one can move freely. Solidarity, as well as the constraints imposed on countries by the eurozone treaties, have in any case helped to bring their policies closer together while withstanding the financial, monetary and social turmoil of the crisis.
This crisis has also brought about a change in the leadership of the European Union. Originally led by the Commission in Brussels, in practice power in Europe has increasingly passed to the governments of the member states, particularly in the eurozone.
This means that Europe as a union of nation states, as predicted by the first President of the Fifth. Republic predicted, is best suited to dealing with crises.
This statement is confirmed by the internal and external challenges that threaten the European Union. Nationalist and xenophobic tendencies have crystallised in its midst, which have intensified with the movement of refugees and migrants to the countries north of the Mediterranean.
The Commission, helpless before this phenomenon that it did not foresee and before the often hostile and contradictory reactions of the Member States, is forced to question the Schengen system, which is supposed to protect the external borders of the Union.
In the absence of a common geopolitical vision and military support, the European Union is unable to intervene to combat or contain the conflicts that threaten it directly or indirectly.
France therefore finds itself isolated in Africa from the conflicts caused by radical Islamism. And its participation in the coalition to contain the Syrian civil war and fight the Islamic State has not been successful enough.
After the disappearance of the Soviet system, Russia, which is bound to Europe by its geography, history, economic interests and culture, has once again become involved in neighbouring countries, in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, by conquering territories. This calls peaceful coexistence into question and is causing the greatest unrest in the Baltic states and in the international community.
These challenges, which make Europe politically, economically and socially vulnerable, have the particular consequence of calling into question the affiliation of the peoples, especially the French, to the European Union.
This means that at the very moment when the presence of a solidary, powerful, free and independent Europe would be most necessary in the only areas that the nations have entrusted to them, it seems disappointing and inadequate to say the least.
It would be the task of a President of the Republic who shares de Gaulle's convictions to be inspired by the path he has marked out and to give France back the task and the place that corresponds to this idea of Europe."
Alain Terrenoire,
President of the International Pan-European Union
Programme (FR) (PDF)