Planning the European architecture: The contribution of Robert Marjolin

Abstract

In his autobiographical notes, Robert Marjolin defines himself as "architect of European Unity". He played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of France after WWII and in the construction of the European Economic Community. He was a strict collaborator of Jean Monnet far before the end of the war and vice-President of the European Commission from 1958 to 1967. He was a fervent advocate of European integration and strongly believed in the urgency to develop a planning approach at European level that was coherent with his idea of economic and monetary union. Accordingly, he bustled about the attempt to spread and to make accepted his idea of Europe as "Europe organisée" by coordinating meetings and seminars and by creating a network of people that shared and sustained the idea of economic planning. He promoted a communitarian "action programme" which should go beyond the customs union and would consider some long-term commu-nitarian targets. A large part of the literature overlooks Marjolin's contribution to the European project. Main aim of this paper is to focus on Marjolin's role in the European integration process and show that building a strong (economic but also political, social, and military) European union was his main goal and the leitmotif of his whole career.