Anjo G. Harryvan Livres

Max Kohnstamm (*1914) is a pioneer of post-war European unification. As Jean Monnet’s right-hand man he was closely involved in the establishment and design of the European Union (EU) as we know it today. Up to the present day he devotes himself to a solid European and international community of law, aimed at effectively banning unilateral power aspirations and interstate violence. As a surviver of Hitler’s ‘Nacht und Nebel’ the young Dutch diplomat and former secretary to Queen Wilhelmina found himself both impressed and greatly inspired by Monnet’s campaign for supranationally organising the states of Europe as an alternative for war. Kohnstamm acted as secretary-general of the ‘first European government’, the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. In 1956 he left office to assist Monnet and the latter’s Action Committee for the United States of Europe. The two men constituted a team that exerted far-reaching influence behind the scenes of European and global diplomacy. In 1974 Kohnstamm became the first president of the European University Institute in Florence. In later years he played a remarkable role in Jacques Delors’ policy drive for completing the EU’s Common Market. Anjo G. Harryvan and Jan van der Harst lecture and publish on foreign affairs and European integration.

As one of the six founding member-states of the European Union, the Netherlands has been at the heart of the European integration project from its inception. Looking back on the Netherlands’ role in European cooperation and integration during the 1950s and 1960s, Joseph Luns, the country’s long-standing Foreign Minister, depicted himself as an exponent of a «Dutch vision». This vision, Luns suggested, enabled the country to act as a leading force in Europe, thus demonstrating that in specific constellations in international affairs, a middle-sized or even a small country can play an important role.What was this «Dutch vision» of Europe and was Luns right in ascribing so much importance to it? In this book, the author sets out to investigate whether, under which conditions and by what means the Netherlands has exerted an «engineering influence» on the economic and institutional architecture of the European Union. It sheds fresh light on the policies of the Netherlands and its Benelux partners in the process of making Europe as we know it today.Achieving the Common Market may well be considered the ultimate success of contemporary Dutch diplomacy.

Mehr als je zuvor steht Europa im Zentrum der politischen Debatte. Einstige Selbstverständlichkeiten sind durch die jüngsten Krisen Gegenstand eines intensiven Gedankenaustausches geworden. In den Beiträgen dieses Buches über die Entwicklung und die Zukunft der Europäischen Union, herausgegeben von Mitarbeitern des Zentrums für Niederlande-Studien der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, der Rijksuniversiteit Groningen sowie der Universiteit Utrecht, liegt der Fokus auf dieser Diskussion. Konkret wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich in Deutschland und in den Niederlanden die Regierungen, die politischen Parteien, die Medien und die öffentliche Meinung sowie die Sozialpartner im Hinblick auf die europäische Integration positioniert haben. Durch diese Herangehensweise werden nicht nur landesinterne, sondern auch grenzüberschreitende Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen den verschiedenen Akteuren sichtbar.