An Ever Closer Union Among the Peoples of Europe: A Critical Legal History

This project aims to provide the first critical legal historical analysis of the iconic opening line of the EU treaties; ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’.

This project will therefore advance the scientific understanding of the origins and meaning of the most well-known phrase of EU law, meant to define European integration.

EPoCH is designed to offer a novel account of who was meant to be included and excluded from the ‘ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’, when the phrase was drafted and re-drafted.

This is a singularly novel approach, which will advance the state of the art of research on the foundations of EU law, as well as the history of European integration.

Evaluating the project of European integration from the point of view of the historical legal standing of the individual within the project itself is important in today’s context of renewed interest in political nationalism and critique of the EU.

EPoCH conducts the first ever systematic analysis of the archival material of the Intergovernmental Conferences (IGCs) of the Rome Treaty 1956-57, and of the Maastricht Treaty 1990-91.

EPoCH’s specific objectives are, first, to acquire knowledge about the ways in which the choice of ‘peoples of Europe’ was affected by the on-going, yet unravelling, colonialism of the EEC Member States during the drafting of the Rome Treaty in 1956-57.

Second, to acquire knowledge about the ways in which individual economic activity was a precondition for the right to EU citizenship, during the drafting of the Maastricht Treaty in 1991-92.

This means understanding more about the meaning of the concept of ‘peoples of Europe’ when connected to that of ‘EU citizenship’.

Third, to analyse the relation between the micro-histories of the drafting of the Rome and Maastricht treaties concerning who was included and excluded from the ‘ever closer union’, and how that affects the current heightened tension between European integration and the nation state.