Debating Europe Transnationally: The Council of European Industrial Federations and the Struggle over European Integration, 1950–1962

Abstract

European integration has been promoted, shaped and criticised by a variety of actors in different frameworks since 1945. Non-state actors such as employers’ associations became involved in this process very early on and, contrary to the widespread assumption in political science, created or revived transnational business associations in order to debate and shape the development of European integration from the second half of the 1940s. One of these platforms was the Council of European Industrial Federations (CEIF), which was founded in 1949 and consisted of representatives of all the national peak employers’ associations from the member states of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). It officially advised the OEEC and represented European industry. The article analyses transnational business associations’ conflictual engagement with European integration and ‘Europe’ on the basis of the CEIF's Europeanisation process in the 1950s. It argues that contestation acted as a main driver of Europeanisation and that the early period of European integration must be understood as one of fights over different ‘Europes’. However, it also shows that ‘Europe’ must be understood as a fluid category that was used in various ways and imbued with a range of meanings by economic actors in different circumstances.