The people who helped to create the EU

Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi

Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi is a son of an Austro-Hungarian count and diplomat. He was born in 1894. After the First World War, Coudenhove-Kalergi set out a fight for the unity of Europe. His first book - in fact a manifesto - titled Pan-Europa was published in 1923, and each copy contained a membership form which invited the reader to become a member of Pan-Europa movement. Thus, Coudenhove-Kalergi is the founder of the first movement for the European unity. The movement held its first Congress in Vienna in 1926. The following year Aristide Briand was elected honorary president.

Major personalities of European culture, as Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, Rilke, Unamuno, Madariaga, Ortega y Gasset and Adenauer, belonged to Pan- Europa. The French statesman Edouard Herriot writes in his book "The United States of Europe": "A large body among the leading spirits of Europe's youth devotes itself today to the achievement of the lofty teachings of Kant. At the head of this intellectual group it is only fair to put Count Richard N. Coudenhove-Kalergi, the man who has certainly done most in recent years for European federation".

Aristide Briand

Aristide Briand was a lawyer and a Socialist, he entered (1902) the chamber of deputies and helped to draft and pass the law (1905) for separation of church and state. Made (1906) minister of education and minister of religion to execute the law, he was ejected from the Socialist party for participating in the bourgeois cabinet of premier Jean Sarrien. In 1909, he became premier for the first of 11 times.

In World War I, Briand headed (1915-17) two successive coalition cabinets and made the decision to hold Verdun at any cost. His government fell in March 1917; attacked by Georges Clemenceau for attempting to negotiate a peace with Germany in 1917, Briand retired. After the war he emerged as a leading advocate of international peace and cooperation, and he is best remembered for his devotion to this cause. The cabinet he headed in 1921 fell because of his unpopular criticism of the Treaty of Versailles and his moderate demands at international conferences, where he worked for a reconciliation with Germany without the sacrifice of French security.

As foreign minister from 1925 to 1932 he was the chief architect of the Locarno Pact (1925) and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928), and he shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Gustav Stresemann. An impressive orator, Briand was a prominent figure in the League of Nations. He advocated a plan for a United States of Europe.

Robert Schuman

He was born on 29 June 1886 in Luxembourg and he died on 4 Sept. 1963. He was French Prime Minister between Nov. 1947 and July 1950 and he was also French Foreign Minister between 1948 and 1953.

The son of a small farmer, Schuman attended Catholic secondary schools in Luxembourg and in German-occupied Metz, Munich, Berlin, Strasbourg and University in Bonn (where he met the young Konrad Adenauer). Elected deputy for Moselle when the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France, he devoted himself to problems of reintegrating the departments into the Republic. He slowly but steadily ascended in the Assembly through specializing in financial affairs. He was noted by Paul Reynaud, who made him under-secretary in the War Cabinet. Pétain reconfirmed him in that position but he was arrested by the Occupation authorities, freed, and then fled to Lyons.

At the Liberation he was one of the founders of the French Christian Democratic Party (MRP) and returned to the Assembly. His great contribution was made over the next 8 years as Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister. He became a liberalizing Finance Minister in 1946 and then, at the outbreak of the Cold War, Prime Minister. The government of 1947 was crucial to the future of France and Europe: it faced down the strike waves. During this year Schuman's government brought the United States back into the European arena and consolidated aid to the economies and he played a key role in securing the Atlantic Alliance.

The other strand to Schuman's work was the development of European institutions on the basis of Franco-German rapprochement. This is where the famous "Schuman Plan" (prepared by Jean Monnet) to create a market in coal and steel across Germany and France was crucial. The Plan was approved by the Assembly and became the basis for future integration measures. The proposal for a defence community, which Schuman supported, failed in 1954 (and he resigned as Foreign Minister) but the Rome Treaties setting up the EEC were a success. Schuman was edged out of politics after 1958 by the return of de Gaulle and his party was also humbled by the General. He was, as has been said, a Luxembourger by birth, a German by education, Roman Catholic for ever, French at heart, and one of the princes of Europe.

Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet

He lived between 1888 and 1979. He was French economist, public official and proponent of European unity.

In World War I, Monnet served on the Inter-Allied Maritime Commission, an international committee designed to secure war materials, foodstuffs, and shipping facilities for the Allies. He was later (1919-23) deputy general of the League of Nations. During World War II, as a member of the Washington-based British Supply Council (1940-43), he was instrumental in coordinating the Allied war effort. In 1945, Monnet was appointed to draft a plan for French economic revival; the Monnet Plan (1947) called for the modernization of French industry and agriculture with government help and supervision, and provided for a 48-hr work week to achieve economic goals.

The resultant redevelopment encouraged French participation in the Marshall Plan and also in the Schuman Plan, drafted by Monnet himself. The Schuman Plan established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), of which Monnet was first president (1952-55); he conceived the ECSC as the initial step toward European economic and political integration (European Union). In 1955, Monnet organized the Action Committee for a United States of Europe, and became its first chairman a year later. The group supported establishment of the Common Market (the European Economic Community), which developed from many of Monnet's ideas.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

He was born in 1874 and died in 1965. Winston Churchil was British soldier, politician, and prime minister. He became prime minister shortly after World War II began and served through the end of the war in Europe. Churchill symbolized the fierce determination of the British to resist conquest by the Germans under Adolf Hitler. He forged a close alliance with Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union in opposition to Germany.

Stunningly defeated in elections in 1945, he returned to office as prime minister for several years in the 1950s. Churchill was known for his fine oratory. When he became prime minister, he said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” Concerning the British airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain, he said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” He originated the phrase “Iron Curtain.” As an author, he is especially remembered for two histories, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples and The Second World War. Churchill's appearance was distinctive, with his bowler hat, cigars, portly frame, balding head, and two-finger “V for Victory” sign.