1959-1973

TELEVISION BBC Report On De Gaulle becoming President of the V Republic   (January 1959)

 TELEVISION French TV Report on the Opening of frontiers with the coming into force of the EEC (January 1959)

Statement given by UK prime minister Harold Macmillan, on the first application for membership of the EEC (July 1961).

 EFTA Convention (January 1960) Download pdf here.
Signed by the Seven (the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Portugal) this was originally intended to be a vehicle for securing a group-to-group agreement with the EEC. With this function blocked, it aquired a more permanent place in Europe’s institutional achitecture, though scarcely was the ink on the treaty dry than the UK began preparing to apply for EEC membership.

 Convention for the OECD (December 1960) replacing the defunct OEEC, and now including the USA and Canada as full members.

 Berlin War is built (August 1961)
RADIO US Report 

 Fouchet Plan (October 1961)  
A French initiative to improve political and foreign policy cooperation among the Six EEC countries, outside the supranational framework of  the Treaty of Rome. It was vehemently opposed by the Dutch.

RADIO Edward Heath announcing the UK’s application for EEC membership (October 1961) to the House of Commons

 De Gaulle’s “non” to British EEC membership  (January 1963). Scroll to items 10 and 12. Extracts in French. The French veto torpedoed British hopes for membership and started a debate, even to today, as to the underlying reasons. It was originally opposed by the other five EEC members, but there was little they could do.

RADIO BBC report on the veto

 RADIO Prime-minister Harold Macmillan’s radio address (1963) in the aftermath of the French veto of the UK’s membership application, creating the myth that the French veto came not because the negotiations were going to fail but because the were going to succeed.

 Franco-German Friendship Treaty (January 1963) and here in French. A curious episode between two traditional enemies, but even more symbolic when seen in connection with the veto of UK EEC membership.

RADIO German radio report

TELEVISION German TV report 

PHOTO Signatures on the Treaty

Yaoundé Convention (July 1963)

 TELEVISION French TV reflection on 15 years European integration (1965)  with some nice archive fragments

Merger treaty (1965)….. The original treaty can be downloaded from here.
This brought to an end the separate institutional existence of the ECSC and Euratom, though not the specific powers in the original treaties.

Proposals on the Common Agricultural Policy, submitted by the Commission to the Council (March 1965).
 

TELEVISION French President Charles de Gaulle (1965) explains his view of Europe in the wake of the crisis he plunged it into, when the French decided to boycott all community institutions unless its national interests were recognized and the decision to move to majority decision-making were reversed.

 Luxembourg Compromise (January 1966). This compromise did  indeed allow unanimous decision-making to remain and it also limited the rights of initiative of the Commission, thereby strengthening the role of the Council of Permanent Representatives. It set the decision-making patterns for the nest two decades. It also resolved the dead-lock of agriculture and community funding.

 TELEVISION French report on the UK’s second EEC application  (November 1966)

 De Gaulle Press Conference (May 1967) indicating a preference for UK EEC association rather than membership

 RADIO Walter Hallstein on the merger of the European Communities   (June 1967)

 De Gaulle Press conference (November 1967)  vetoing the UK EEC Application 

 RADIO 1969 BBC profile on Jean Monnet, including extracts of the interview with him on his views on European integration (May 1969)

 Davignon Report (October 1970)

 Adoption of the Werner Plan (1970) (At ENA, in German and French)

TELEVISION French President Georges Pompidou press conference (1971) and views on a suprantional Europe (Extract)

 UK, Denmark, Ireland and Norway sign Treaty of Accession (January 1972)

RADIO BBC report including fragments from Prime-minister Edward Heath’s speech.

 EEC-EFTA Bilateral trade Agreements (July 1972)

Norwegian referendum (September 1972) rejects EEC membership

MAP Distribution of results 

 TELEVISION Edward Heath explaining to BBC viewers the impact of the EEC on the UK (December 1992)