Unity in essence, not in form": European political integration projects of the middle of the 1960s.

The article aims to examine the projects of political integration proposed by European politicians in the middle of the 1960s and to specify their role in European political integration. It is based on the published documents of European Communities, press publications and memoirs. Analysis of the projects, proposed in the middle of the 1960s, shows that after the failure of the Fouchet Plan, the Europeans shifted the debate from grand ideas of a political union to the more modest concept of foreign policy coordination. Belgian Foreign Minister Spaak suggested a committee of three "wise men" to be appointed to prepare agenda for regular summit meetings on European political problems. On the basis of this experience, the committee could then draft a treaty, establishing the European Political Union. German Chancellor Erhard advocated a step-by-step approach. In the first phase, the governments should consult each other on major political and defense matters. The Erhard Plan envisaged the creation, for a transitional period, of an advisory committee to prepare for regular meetings of government leaders and chief ministers. By the end of the transitional period, the committee would also help to prepare proposals for a more binding form of political cooperation to be established after treaty negotiations. Italian Foreign Minister Saragat suggested holding annual meetings of the leaders of state of the European Economic Community (EEC) countries, and efforts to draw up a treaty on political unity by 1968. For an experimental period of three years, there would also be quarterly meetings between foreign ministers, prepared by a special political commission. Despite the modest character, the projects were not implemented because of the "empty chair" crisis in the EEC that occurred in 1965. The author concludes that though the projects of Spaak, Erhard and Saragat did not succeed, they filled a pause in the discussion on the European political integration and influenced the European Political Cooperation launched in 1970. First, the European Political Cooperation incorporated some of the ideas proposed in the middle of the 1960s, including the idea of regular meetings of foreign ministers and the heads of state and governments prepared by a special committee. Second, a major shift occurred from the ambitious plans to establish a political union immediately to the political consultations and harmonization of the foreign policies as a means of strengthening the European political unity.

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