The European Union Review, Vol. 13 No. 2-3 2008
La
Quatrième République et les Traités de Rome
Gérard Bossuat - Université Cergy-Pontoise, France
Abstract
The Fourth Republic in France is always perceived as an unloved
political system due to the failure of the Algerian crisis solution and the
political instability. Is it fair? Certainly not regarding the Western Europe
unity. Indeed in spite of the economic difficulties of France, issued of the
extreme caution of Premier Guy Mollet to preserve the welfare and therefore his
weakness to fight against inflation, the government took the risk of the Common
Market, the most dangerous of the two Rome Treaties. According to the witness
of Emile Noël, former General Secretary of the European Commission, Guy Mollet
and his staff, with the French Foreign Minister, Christian Pineau and the
under-secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, the young Maurice Faure, decided
to negotiate new European institutions which entered France in a new process of
unity in Europe. Mollet thought the European Treaties (Common Market and
Euratom) would drive France to walk towards the “real independence” in order to
promote all the potentially of his country. More, from the point of view of Guy
Mollet, the atlantist, the two Treaties were giving Europe to become a partner
of the United States for creating friendship with USSR and to reduce the
tension between the two super-powers. The Rome Treaties opened the way to a
Political united Europe. They were the means of giving the under-developed
countries a true post colonial emancipation in the economic and social fields. But
the French government said that never Europe will be strong without the
British. This article founded on archives and works pertaining to the unknown
story of this strategic decision shows how France was entering the process of
unity after the rejection of the European Defence Community by the Parliament
in August 1954 and what was the role of a politician, Guy Mollet, convinced of
the great interest of the European unity for France. He reached this goal with
realism and skilfulness in spite of the general reluctance of the political and
economic elite. Times have changed and this governmental team push the French
Parliament to approve the ratification of the Rome Treaties. This article
presents the European choice of the Socialist Guy Mollet, the deep difficulties
to overcome them and the foreign constraints on France, then the compromises
which finally explain the success story of the Rome Treaties in France. Therefore
the Rome Treaties were a “audacious gamble” according to one of his father,
Christian Pineau.
Keywords: Rome Treaties; Fourth Republic; European Integration
Mots-clé: Traités
de Rome; Quatrième République; Intégration Européenne