2018

Abstract: From its very beginnings, the construction of the European Union has been marked by crises and setbacks. We believe this is understandable, as reconciling the interests of all actors involved in the process of its formation has proven to be one of the most difficult challenges in contemporary international relations. However, to date, we can say that every crisis or failure the Communities or the Union have faced has spurred its development, despite the initial negative consequences. We believe that the episode involving the drafting and rejection of the so-called Fouchet Plans also fits into this trend. In this paper, we analyze the context of their emergence, the main proposals made, their rejection and the reasons behind it, and, above all, the main proposals made on that occasion that were subsequently later, in forms more or less similar, among the reform elements of the Treaties on which the Communities were founded and on which the Union is founded today. In light of this and given the intergovernmentalist tendency of the Plans, which, as we will show in our research, could have had the potential to block the deepening of integration within the Communities, we consider that the rejection of the Fouchet Plans, although it represents a crisis in European integration, should not be considered a failure, but rather fits into the pattern identified above of European integration’s progress through overcoming various moments of crisis.

 

Keywords: European Communities, European Union, crises, failures, the Fouchet Plans, European Political Community, Charles de Gaulle, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Common Foreign and Security Policy, federalism, intergovernmentalism.