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‘Integration, Nobody Knows What It Means’: European Cooperation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), 1947–56

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European Integration Beyond Brussels

Abstract

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), founded in 1947, predates both the Marshall Plan and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The all-European UNECE was, in fact, the first permanent international organisation formed after the Second World War dedicated to economic cooperation in Europe. In public perception and in the historiography on European integration, however, its role is marginal at best. The chapter aims to contextualise the UNECE in the history of economic cooperation in postwar Europe. It argues that the pan-European UNECE was a ‘suppressed historical alternative’ to (Western) European integration projects such as the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the European Community/Union (EC/EU).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most existing accounts of the UNECE’s history were written by former UNECE actors such as Yves Berthelot (ed.), Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas: Perspectives from the UN Regional Commissions (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004); Gunnar Myrdal, ‘Twenty Years of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’, International Organization 22, no. 3 (1968): 617–28; Václav Kostelecký, The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe: The Beginning of a History (Göteborg: Graphic Systems, 1989). More recent publications by academic historians include Örjan Appelqvist, ‘Rediscovering Uncertainty: Early Attempts at a Pan-European Post-War Recovery’, Cold War History 8, no. 3 (2008): 327–52; Vincent Lagendijk, ‘The Structure of Power: The UNECE and East-West Electricity Connections, 1947–1975’, Comparativ 24, no. 1 (2014): 50–65.

  2. 2.

    The concept of a suppressed historical alternative is taken from Barrington Moore, Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1978).

  3. 3.

    Mark Gilbert, European Integration: A Concise History (Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), 1.

  4. 4.

    Ernst B. Haas, The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950–1957 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958).

  5. 5.

    Hence Patel’s call, discussed in the introduction of this volume, to ‘provincialise’ the EC/EU within historical research, see Kiran Klaus Patel, ‘Provincialising European union: Cooperation and Integration in Europe in a Historical Perspective’, Contemporary European History 22, no. 4 (2013): 649–73.

  6. 6.

    Susan Strange, ‘Why Do International Organizations Never Die?’, in Bob Reinalda and Bertjan Verbeek (eds.), Autonomous Policy Making by International Organisations (London: Routledge, 1998).

  7. 7.

    Yves Berthelot, ‘Unity and Diversity of Development: The Regional Commissions’ Experience’, in Berthelot, Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas, 1–50, here 15–17.

  8. 8.

    United Nations Offices at Geneva Archives (hereafter UNOG), AAR 14/1360/Box 83, ‘UNECE Debate at 9th Session: Gunnar Myrdal’s speech to the Economic and Social Council’, 8 July 1953.

  9. 9.

    Yves Berthelot, ‘Unity and Diversity of Development: The Regional Commissions’ Experience’, 20–1.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 7.

  11. 11.

    Gabriele Clemens, Alexander Reinfeldt and Gerhard Wille, Geschichte der Europäischen Integration. Ein Lehrbuch (Paderborn: UTB, 2008), 63.

  12. 12.

    Appelqvist, ‘Rediscovering Uncertainty’, 340.

  13. 13.

    UNOG/General Assembly Resolution 28 (I), ‘Reconstruction of countries member of the UN devastated by the war’, 2 February 1946.

  14. 14.

    UNOG/General Assembly Resolution 46 (I), ‘Economic reconstruction of devastated areas’, 11 December 1946.

  15. 15.

    Charles P. Kindleberger, ‘Appendix D: Origins of the Marshall Plan. Memorandum by Charles P. Kindleberger, July 22, 1948’, in Stanley Hoffmann and Charles Maier (eds.), The Marshall Plan: A Retrospective (Boulder, CO and London: Westview Press, 1984), 115.

  16. 16.

    UNOG/ARR 14/1360/Box 69/Folder W.W. Rostow, ‘Draft of Proposed U.S. Plan for a European Settlement: Spring 1946’, undated.

  17. 17.

    John R. Gillingham, Coal, Steel, and the Rebirth of Europe, 1945–1955: The Germans and French from Ruhr Conflict to Economic Community (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 109.

  18. 18.

    Swedish Labour Movement’s Archives and Library (hereafter ARBARK), Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/3/7: Övriga handlingar rörande UNECE, Transcript of interview with Walt Rostow, undated (1979?).

  19. 19.

    Royal Institute of International Affairs, ‘United Nations Meetings’, Chronology of International Events and Documents 3, no. 7 (1947).

  20. 20.

    Harold James, ‘The Multiple Contexts of Bretton Woods’, Past and Present 210, no. 6 (2011): 290–308.

  21. 21.

    See Chapter VIII (Regional Arrangements) and Chapter IX (International Economic and Social Cooperation) of the United Nations Charter, available at http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/un-charter-full-text/index.html (accessed 9 May 2016).

  22. 22.

    United Nations Archives and Records Management Section, New York (hereafter UNARMS), S-0991-0004-06/ECOSOC Secretariat–Economic Commission for Europe 02/46-09/47, Getahoun Tesemma, Secretary of the Ethiopian Delegation to the UN General Assembly, to Trygve Lie, 16 December 1946.

  23. 23.

    UNARMS/S-0991-0004-06/ECOSOC Secretariat–Economic Commission for Europe 02/46-09/47, David Owen to Getahoun Tesemma, First Secretary, Imperial Ethiopian Legation, 24 January 1947.

  24. 24.

    The National Archives, London (hereafter TNA), FO 371/62383, ‘Comments by UK Permanent Representative to UN to FO’, 3 March 1947.

  25. 25.

    TNA/FO/371/62384, ‘Establishment of an Economic Commission for Europe: Economic and Social Council, Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, Provisional estimate presented by the Secretary-General in accordance with financial regulation no. 25 of the General Assembly, E/366/Add.1’, 23 March 1947.

  26. 26.

    On the regional commissions, see Berthelot, Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas.

  27. 27.

    Myrdal, ‘Twenty Years of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’, 619.

  28. 28.

    Joseph M. Jones, The Fifteen Weeks: An Insider Account of the Genesis of the Marshall Plan (New York: Viking Press, 1955).

  29. 29.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/3/1/1: Korrespondens 1949–1982, Draft from Paul R. Porter, ‘From Morgenthau Plan to Marshall Plan: A Memoir’, 28 April 1980.

  30. 30.

    Matthias Schmelzer, The Hegemony of Growth. The OECD and the Making of the Economic Growth Paradigm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).

  31. 31.

    Historical Archives of the European Union, Florence (hereafter HAEU), EUI Oral History Collection, transcript of Miriam Camps interviewed by F. Duchêne, 30 August 1988, available at http://archives.eui.eu/en/files/transcript/15818?d=inline (accessed 20 July 2016).

  32. 32.

    UNOG/ARR/14/1360/Box 71: Gunnar Myrdal, ‘Two Notes on ERP and East-West Trade’, December 1949.

  33. 33.

    National Archives and Records Administration College Park, MD (hereafter NARA), RG 59 Department of State Decimal File 340.240, 1950–54, Box 1345, Telegram from US Resident Delegation at UNECE to State Department, ‘Speeches of UK, Polish and Yugoslav Dels. at Fifth Session’, 2 June 1950.

  34. 34.

    Alan S. Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945–51 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1984), 281.

  35. 35.

    UNOG/ARR/14/1360/Box 71: Gunnar Myrdal, ‘Two Notes on ERP and East-West Trade’, December 1949.

  36. 36.

    For more see Gunnar Myrdal, ‘The Research Work of the Secretariat of the Economic Commission for Europe’, in Ekonomisk Tidskrift (ed.), 25 Economic Essays in English, German and Scandinavian Languages in Honour of Erik Lindahl (Stockholm: Ekonomisk Tidskrift, 1956), 267–93.

  37. 37.

    See, for instance, the ‘History’ section on the European Union’s official website available at https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/history_en (accessed 20 November 2017).

  38. 38.

    For an overview of national motivations, see Michael Berger, ‘Motives for the Foundation of the ECSC’, Poznan University of Economics Review 13, no. 3 (2013), 55–90.

  39. 39.

    For an overview, see Guido Thiemeyer, Europäische Integration (Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2010); Clemens, Reinfeldt, and Wille, Geschichte Der Europäischen Integration, 99–102.

  40. 40.

    Milward , The Reconstruction of Western Europe; Gillingham, Coal, Steel, and the Rebirth of Europe.

  41. 41.

    Hellmuth Auerbach, ‘Die Europäische Wende Der Französischen Deutschlandpolitk 1947/48’, in Ludolf Herbst, Werner Bührer and Hanno Sowade (eds.), Vom Marshallplan Zur EWG: Die Eingliederung Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Die Westliche Welt (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1990).

  42. 42.

    HAEU/EUI Oral History Collection, transcripts of Lord Derek Ezra interviewed by F. Duchêne, January and April 1989, available at http://archives.eui.eu/oral_history/INT497 (accessed 20 July 2016).

  43. 43.

    UNOG/Box 67/Folder I/3/3: Schuman Authority, F. Vinck to Gunnar Myrdal, 25 November 1952.

  44. 44.

    Josef Brandt, ‘Der Stahleuropäer Tony Rollman’, in Charles Barthel and Josée Kirps (eds.) Terres Rouges. Histoire De La Sidérurgie Luxembourgeoise (Luxembourg: Centre d’études et de recherches européennes Robert Schuman, 2010), 10–34, here 11.

  45. 45.

    Tony Rollman, Une aventure européenne (Dudelage: CAN, 2004) available at http://www.cvce.eu/de/obj/tony_rollman_and_his_role_in_the_economic_reconstruction_of_europe-en-c2285a01-4d7c-4189-9bb2-acd81ba1f7e4.html (accessed 13 December 2016).

  46. 46.

    Berger, ‘Motives for the Foundation of the ECSC’.

  47. 47.

    UNOG/Box 67/Folder I/3/3: Schuman Authority, ‘Position paper for conversations between the UNECE Secretariat and the staff of the High Authority’, c. November 1952.

  48. 48.

    Gilbert, European Integration, 36.

  49. 49.

    Gillingham, Coal, Steel, and the Rebirth of Europe, 232.

  50. 50.

    Gilbert, European Integration, 27.

  51. 51.

    Wolfram Kaiser and Johan Schot, Writing the Rules for Europe. Experts, Cartels and International Organisations (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Thomas J. Misa and Johan Schot, ‘Inventing Europe: Technology and the Hidden Integration of Europe’, History and Technology 21, no. 1 (2005): 1–19.

  52. 52.

    United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE Standard Llama/Alpaca Meat Carcases and Cuts. UNECE/Trade/368 (Geneva and New York: United Nations, 2006).

  53. 53.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/2/2: Mars-December 1948, Draft article for The New York Times Magazine by Michael L. Hoffman, ‘They show that Nations can cooperate’, 12 September 1948.

  54. 54.

    Wolfgang Protzner, ‘Vom Hungerwinter bis zum Beginn der “Freßwelle”’, in Wolfgang Protzner (ed.), Vom Hungerwinter zum kulinarischen Schlaraffenland. Aspekte einer Kulturgeschichte des Essens in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987).

  55. 55.

    Wladek Malinowski, ‘Centralization and Decentralization in the United Nations Economic and Social Activities’, International Organization 16, no. 3 (1962): 521–41.

  56. 56.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/2/2: Mars-December 1948, Paul Chargueraud, Director of UNECE’s Transport Division, ‘International Cooperation for Improved European Transport’, 2 November 1948.

  57. 57.

    Vincent Lagendijk, Electrifying Europe. The Power of Europe in the Construction of Electricity Networks (Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers, 2008); Vincent Lagendijk, ‘Divided Development: Post-War Ideas on River Utilisation and Their Influence on the Development of the Danube’, The International History Review 37, no. 1 (2015): 80–98; Lagendijk, ‘The Structure of Power’.

  58. 58.

    Kiran Klaus Patel and Johan Schot, ‘Twisted Paths to European Integration: Comparing Agriculture and Transport Policies in a Transnational Perspective’, Contemporary European History 20, no. 4 (2011): 337–57.

  59. 59.

    Frank Schipper has published widely on international organizations and European road mobility, see Frank Schipper, ‘All Roads Lead to Europe: The E-Road Network 1950–1970’, T2M Conference Working Document (Paris: Transnational Infrastructures of Europe, 2006); Frank Schipper, ‘Changing the Face of Europe: European Road Mobility During the Marshall Plan Years’, The Journal of Transport History 28, no. 2 (2007): 211–28; Frank Schipper, Driving Europe: Building Europe on Roads in the Twentieth Century (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008).

  60. 60.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/2/2: Mars-December 1948, ‘Opening remarks of the Executive Secretary concerning Minister Jan Masaryk’s death at the first meeting of the Manpower Sub-Committee’, 11 March 1948.

  61. 61.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/2/2: Mars-December 1948, Gunnar Myrdal to Jan Masaryk, 9 March 1948.

  62. 62.

    Melvin M. Fagen, ‘Gunnar Myrdal and the Shaping of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’, Coexistence 25 (1988): 427–35.

  63. 63.

    Myrdal, ‘Twenty Years of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’, 617.

  64. 64.

    David Wightman, ‘East-West Cooperation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’, International Organization 11, no. 1 (1957): 1–12, here 2.

  65. 65.

    Quoted in ARBARK/Václav Kostelecký papers/3332/4/3/5: Övriga handlingar rörande UNECE, Anika de la Grandville to Václav Kostelecký, 28 April 1980.

  66. 66.

    Berthelot, Unity and Diversity, 64.

  67. 67.

    UNOG/ARR/14/1360/Box 1/Folder Gunnar Myrdal Important, Transcript of lecture given under the auspices of the Institute of Economic of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, ‘The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe as an Organ of All-European Economic Co-Operation’, 9 March 1956.

  68. 68.

    Daniel Stinsky, ‘A Bridge between East and West? Gunnar Myrdal and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, 1947–1957’, in Sandrine Kott, Michel Christian and Ondrej Matejka (eds.), Models of Economic and Social Planning in Cold War Europe. Competition, Cooperation, Circulations, 1950s–1970s (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018).

  69. 69.

    ARBARK/Václav Kostlelecký papers/3332/4/2/5: Årslagda handlingar enligt arkivplan 1951–55, ‘Speech by the Executive Secretary of the UNECE at the 716th Meeting of ECOSOC’, 8 July 1953.

  70. 70.

    Jean Siotis, ‘UNECE in the Emerging European System’, International Conciliation, no. 561 (1967): 5–72, here 6.

  71. 71.

    Lagendijk, ‘The Structure of Power’, 63.

  72. 72.

    Gunnar Myrdal, An International Economy. Problems and Prospects, Rich Lands and Poor (New York: Harper & Sons, 1956), 68.

  73. 73.

    Daniel Speich Chassé, ‘Towards a Global History of the Marshall Plan: European Post-War Reconstruction and the Rise of Development Economic Expertise’, in Christian Grabas and Alexander Nützenadel (eds.), Industrial Policy in Europe after 1945: Wealth, Power and Economic Development in the Cold War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

  74. 74.

    Patel, ‘Provincialising European Union’, 652.

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  1. Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands

    Daniel Stinsky

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  1. Institute for History, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Matthew Broad

  2. Centre for European Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Suvi Kansikas

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Stinsky, D. (2020). ‘Integration, Nobody Knows What It Means’: European Cooperation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), 1947–56. In: Broad, M., Kansikas, S. (eds) European Integration Beyond Brussels. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45445-6_2

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