Une première forme de coopération politique européenne : 1881

Abstract

During the 19th cent., the Great Powers in their intention to reach solutions on pending regional issues, conceded to a way of cooperation which, although it did not aim at a broader scope of uniting their foreign policy, it reminded, to a certain extent, the present system of European Political Cooperation. The last phase of the annexation of Thessaly and a part of Epirus by Greece, in 1881, presented the Great Powers the oportunity of implementing among them a more technical and systematic cooperation, aiming at finding a definite and workable solution of this long-standing difference between reece and Turkey. On the proposal of the french Minister for Foreign Affairs, the six Powers decided, most probably for the first time, that their ambassadors in Constantinople send to their capitals “identical telegrams”, so that the ministers could evaluate the evolution of the negotiations held in Constantinople on the same basis. The ambassadors, in the course of their consultations, broadened the mandate they were given by making suggestions as to demarches to be undertaken either to the Porte or to Athens. Though the E.E.C. machinery is much more elaborate and different in its basic conception-as it aims at the unification of the foreign policy of the member-states and, ultimately, the “European Union”—the two systems are characterized by some identical principles and intentions: a better mutual understanding among the cooperating states, the better harmonization of
their views, the reinforcement of their solidarity and the undertaking of concerted action. Similarities and differences between them should be viewed
through the conception of their ultimate aims. This study does not intend to compare the two systems; its purpose is rather to contribute to the historical evolution of the idea of the unification of Europe. Fortuitous proposals, as the one in 1881, may create the convenient climate to allow the germination of ideas of great political dimensions.