Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)

The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created on 16 April 1948, as the result of the deliberations between the sixteen nations that took part in the Committee for European Economic Cooperation (CEEC) in Paris over the summer of 1947, and as a result of the signing of the Economic Cooperation Act by U.S….

Comité Interallié pour l’Étude de l’Armistice

Founded as a subcommittee of the Comité des Ministres des Affaires Étrangères des Gouvernements allies, the Comité Interallié pour l’Étude de l’Armistice was equipped with the task of studying the immediate problems that would arise in the event of an armistice – or the defeat of Germany. The Comité operated from November 1942 to the end…

Comité des Ministres des Affaires Étrangères

As a result of the efforts of Polish informal diplomat Joseph Retinger – who worked closely with Polish Prime Minister Wladyslaw Sikorski – a machinery for consultation between the exiled European governments was created over the summer and fall of 1942. From the beginning of their exile, the Polish government had reflected a desire to…

Intra-European Payments Committee (OEEC)

On 21 June 1948, the Intra-European Payments Committee gathered for the first time. Many of its members had already been active in the Committee of Financial Experts that had worked in the Committee on European Economic Cooperation (CEEC) over the summer of 1947, and had come up with the first intra-European payments mechanism: the Agreement…

Executive Committee (OEEC)

The Council of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation could rely on the assistance of an Executive Committee (EC). The Executive Committee was much smaller than the Council and consisted of only seven members – which would be picked annually by the Council. Generally, the Executive Committee made recommendations to the Council or initiated working…

Council (OEEC)

The highest authority in the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was the Council. All of the participating countries had a representative in the Council. Officially these representatives were the ministers of the participating countries, but mostly they were represented by high-ranked civil servants with economic expertise. On some occasions, mostly at the initiative of…

Joint Trade and Payments Committee (OEEC)

The Joint Trade and Intra-European Payments Committee was a technical ‘horizontal’ committee within the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). It was created in May 1948, and dealt with the interrelated problems of trade and payments within the OEEC. The two goals that were encapsulated in the founding documents of the OEEC, the liberalization of…

World Council of Churches (WCC)

The World Council of Churches came into being as a merger of two previous ecumenical organisations: the Life and Work movement and the Faith and Order movement. It was decided to create the WCC in Utrecht in 1938, but its official inauguration had to be postponed due to the Second World War to 1948. The…

European Movement Congress of The Hague

Beyond the circles of government, the cause for European integration was enthusiastically pushed by different transnational European Movements with the joint organization of the Congress of Europe. With over 800 participants, this Congress had been the kick-off of a public debate about the future of Europe. The International Committee of the Movements for European Unity…

Ecumenical Commission on European Cooperation (ECEC/CCREC)

The Ecumenical Commission on European Cooperation (ECEC) began in the spring of 1950 as an extra-official group of laypersons and theologians to analyze, preview, and discuss developments in the political and economic integration of Western Europe. Hence, unlike other ecumenical bodies, all ECEC members hailed from either Western or Northern European countries. Among its initial members…