Posted on 18 January 2016
The inventory to the archival fonds of the Council of the European Communities for the year 1971 (CM2/1971) has been finalised and is now available on the website of the Historical Archives of the European Union.
The Council of the European Communities is part of the EU legislature and represents the executives of EU Member States. The Council developed from the first Special Council of Ministers of the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951. Under the Treaties of Rome in 1957, the Councils of the European Economic Community and of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) were added. With the Merger Treaty of 1967 the three bodies were combined into a single Council of Ministers.
The 1,562 files for 1971 which are now available for research cover subjects including the internal administration of the Council, its relations with other EU institutions and with international organisations. There are the minutes of meetings of the Council and COREPER (Permanent Representatives Committee) which reveal in great detail the range and volume of the Council’s workload. A large number of files concern COST, the European framework supporting trans-national cooperation among researchers, engineers and scholars across Europe. COST was created in 1971 with the objective of closing the gap between science, policy makers and society throughout Europe and beyond. As a precursor of advanced multidisciplinary research, COST played a very important role in building a European Research Area (ERA).
The files also demonstrate the EEC’s preferential relations with third countries and French Overseas Territories in the form of commercial agreements and aid and the finalisation of the Association Agreement with Turkey.
Other subjects found in the fonds include the EEC’s agricultural policy, particularly regarding the regulations and the sanitary questions associated with the import of animals and meat into and within the European Economic Community, the setting up of trade agreements with third countries, a common customs tariff, social issues and economic and monetary union.
These documents are mostly in French, German and Italian, with a significant number also in English and Danish.
Direct access to the Council of the European Communities fonds