| dc.description.abstract | From the start of negotiations in 1955 through to de Gaulle’s resignation as French President in 1969, the EEC’s economic and institutional model was the focus of fierce debate ranging from Pierre Mendès France’s outspoken fears of an overly marketised Europe to General de Gaulle’s support for a modernising, but non-federal Europe. This study takes an innovative comparative approach to French and European sources, revealing a hidden side of General de Gaulle as the “reluctant father” of Europe. Without his action, the EEC would not have been able to develop so quickly. A study of forgotten public policies such as “programming”, a form of European planning developed by Commissioner Robert Marjolin, the first designs for European union and the birth of the competition policy promoted by the Ordoliberalist Germans shows that European economic integration has been hotly debated right from the outset. This sheds light on the current controversies over Economic and Monetary Union and the clash between competition policy and industrial policy. | |