A few remarkable men dreamed of a more united, peaceful Europe and made their vision a reality

By HUGH THOMAS

he European Union is the real political masterpiece of the 20th century. It is, of course, like all works of art, the consequence of sustained efforts on the part of individuals. These were Jean Monnet, a French brandy merchant accustomed from his youth to the idea of internationally marketing a great product; Konrad Adenauer, a German Lord Mayor before he became Federal Chancellor, and therefore aware of the interrelation between national and local politics; Robert Schuman, a Foreign Minister of France who had been brought up in Metz which, though now firmly French, was part of Germany during his childhood; and Alcide de Gasperi, an Italian with a background similar to Schuman's, for he came from a territory which was Austrian before 1914.

Of these, the inspired brandy merchant was the most important because he was the most original. Monnet left his mark on the whole of modern European experience. Though passionately interested, and effective, in politics, he was not a politician. He lived quietly though affluently, and preferred his comfortable house at Houjarray outside Paris to the palaces of power. His aim was to persuade politicians to act, not to act himself. He had persuaded Churchill to launch the wild but marvellous idea of Franco-British union in 1940; and he had directed the plan called after himself for the modernization of France. He was always looked on as the great insider, one who seemed interested neither in publicity nor in popularity, only in the success of the project.

Monnet approached Europe in the same way. He had long been convinced that, to prevent another European war, the heavy industries of France and Germany ought to operate in one free market, not in tightly controlled national ones. To achieve that through what became in 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community, Monnet did not seek a grand international structure. He wanted politicians to agree first on the abolition of tariffs that would make possible an initial stage of European collaboration.

In the long run, Monnet was a federalist. In 1950, he wrote: "The contribution [that] an organized and vibrant Europe can make to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peace. To achieve that, Europe must be organized on a federal basis." He certainly hoped that one day there would be a United States of Europe, strong enough to stand up to the Soviet threat and able to negotiate on matters relating to tariffs, if nothing else, as an equal partner with the U.S. But he had no plan or timetable to achieve this. He desired to unify, within Europe, what could be unified. His private hope seems to have been that, after years of low-level common efforts, Europeans would wake up to find that they had achieved union without really noticing it.

Monnet did not act alone. First, there was Adenauer. He was a survivor of imperial Germany, for he had become Lord Mayor of Cologne in 1917. He stood for the idea of a Germany that looked west to France, not for the purposes of territorial expansion, but for inspiration. Adenauer was dismissed in Cologne in 1933 when he refused to raise the swastika flag over the municipal offices in his city. When restored to office in 1945 by the Americans, he was again dismissed in October of that year, this time by the British, because of his high-handed style.

Cologne's loss was Germany's gain. Adenauer threw himself into the business of founding the Christian-orientated conservative political party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which survives to this day as the governing party of united Germany. Adenauer's determination was to preside over the revival of Germany within the fabric of a newly confident Western Europe. He achieved that as Chancellor of West Germany.

Robert Schuman was at first sight a more unlikely inspiration. He was austere, lonely and unmarried. Yet Jacques Fauvet, the French editor, said of him: "Luxemburger by birth, German by education, Roman Catholic always, and French at heart, he was destined to be one of the princes of Europe." Actually, as Minister of Finance, briefly Prime Minister and even as Foreign Minister after 1945, Schuman seemed a traditional French patriot. But Monnet worked on him, and he began to speak as if the continued division of Europe into small states was self-evidently "an anachronism, a nonsense," and even "a heresy." It was Schuman, the convert to Monnet's ideas, who, in May 1950, launched the idea of an iron and steel community. He spoke of the need for "European construction and of a Europe solidly united and strongly built."

Alcide de Gasperi's youth was not unlike that of Schuman since he was born an Italian in South Tyrol when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His first political experience was to be arrested by the Austrian police for agitating for an Italian cultural centre in Innsbruck. Though Italian by birth, he went to the University of Vienna, and from 1911 onwards was a member of the Austro-Hungarian Diet (parliament) for Trent. But South Tyrol, with Trent, became Italian in 1919 under the Treaty of Saint-Germain, and De Gasperi acted as a Member of Parliament in Rome as he had in Vienna. He was secretary of the precursor to today's Christian Democratic Party, the Popolari, in the 1920s until it was suppressed by Mussolini. Imprisoned for four years, he was a good candidate to become the first postwar Prime Minister of Italy, and he held that position between 1945 and 1953, presiding over the transition from fascism to democracy, as from monarchy to republic, with subtlety and flair. Though he helped revive Italy, De Gasperi, as befitted his central European past, quickly saw the wisdom of Monnet's European vision. "European patriotism can only develop in a federal Europe," he was wont to say. The participation of Italy as a founding member of the European Common Market was largely due to De Gasperi's humane intelligence.

The 1980s saw the appearance of three more Europeans who may one day be looked upon as almost as important as the founding fathers. First, Helmut Kohl who, throughout his long chancellorship of Germany, has always held firm to the idea of European union. Kohl has been guided by Thomas Mann's goal of ensuring that Germany is secured as a European nation, rather than permitting Europe to become Germanized. Secondly, Francois Mitterrand as President of France was acutely aware of the possibility of German economic dominance if Europe were to be no more than an association of nation-states. He therefore sought to contrive European political and economic union to avoid that. Jacques Delors, as President of the European Commission in the late 1980s, revived the European idea by pressing ahead against all obstacles with the expansion of Europe to become an association of 15 states. He was also concerned with the real completion of the single market, and forced the issue of European monetary union to the top of the political agenda.

The European Union of the early years of the 21st century will thus be praised as the achievement of four Frenchmen (Monnet, Schuman, Mitterrand, Delors), two Germans (Adenauer and Kohl), and one Italian (De Gasperi). In the end, however, Monnet and Delors will be seen as the decisive influences: Monnet because he lit the flame; Delors because he revived what seemed to be a dying fire. The Union will be admired in the future as a model whereby a group of independent nation-states associate in numerous departments of life, while retaining their own institutions and traditions. As always in such undertakings, the authors are those who should be praised and thanked.

Hugh Thomas, a member of Britain's House of Lords, has written books on the Spanish Civil War, Cuba and the conquest of Mexico. His most recent book is The Slave Trade.

ROBERT SCHUMAN
Born in Luxembourg, he was France's Foreign Minister when the European Coal and Steel Community was launched as the first step in his plan for European integration.

KONRAD ADENAUER
Imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II, he went on to lead the Christian Democratic Union and become the first Chancellor of the new Federal Republic.

ALCIDE DE GASPERI
A former journalist, Vatican librarian and resistance fighter, he helped found the Christian Democratic Party and was Prime Minister during Italy's post-War reconstruction.