Posted on 29 May 2020
Over the course of the year 2019, the HAEU received, treated and published online in the archival database 53.559 archival files belonging to EU institutional holdings. This article provides an overview of the new archival material available from EU institutions and highlights its relevance for researchers.
A total of 8,320 files described by the Historical Archives Service of the European Commission were processed by HAEU archivists over the year 2019. These ‘BAC’ (Brussels Archives of the Commission) files encompass all files produced by the Commission of the European Economic Community (CCEE, 1958-1967), the EURATOM Commission (CEEA, 1958-1967) and the European Commission (CEUE, from 1967 onwards).
The newly processed BAC files concern mainly the work of the EURATOM Commission (CEEA) created by the 1957 Treaty of Rome establishing the European Atomic Energy Community. In particular, the files cover education and research (Recherche et enseignement REEN), and industrial and economic affairs (Industrie et économie INEC). They offer the possibility to study the work and activities of the EURATOM Commission in major policy fields, and to analyse its role as policy initiator in significant developments at the Community level in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, from the initial policy proposals to their implementation in Member States. The European Commission’s fonds constitute a key source of information to conduct research on European integration from a historical and institutional perspective shedding light on the role of the European Commission in this process. Furthermore, the files allow to study the Commission’s relations with Member States, third countries, international organisations and private bodies, including business organizations, trade associations and various non-governmental organisations.
A project was launched in 2018 by the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) and the Historical Archives Service of the Commission (SAH), to implement a new archival file plan to the fonds of the European Commission deposited at the HAEU. The new structure provides a clear distinction between the files produced by the different Commissions: CCEE, CEEA and CEUE, and the different organs and services therein. This facilitates research throughout the inventories. All BAC files are currently being moved into the new structure, while the original BAC record codes will continue to be reported in the inventories.
Consult the inventory of the Commission’s fonds deposited at the HAEU.
A total of 34.823 files of the EP Historical Archives, transferred to the HAEU between 2012 and 2018, were made available to research in 2019. These include all files pertaining to the EP’s fourth legislature, the European official legal acts adopted between 2005 and 2009, and the files produced by the cabinets of the Secretaries-General between 1958 and 1986.
The archives of the European Parliament for the period 1994-1999 (PE4) consist of 34.195 files reflecting the legislative activity of the European Parliament. They constitute a key source about the growing role of the EP in European decision-making. Through the work of parliamentary committees and delegations (reports, minutes), and its plenary sessions (parliamentary questions, minutes of plenary meetings), the files document main events of the period, such as the enlargement to 15 Member States in 1995, the introduction of the Euro and the Treaty of Amsterdam, which strengthened the role of the Parliament as co-legislator with the Council.
Consult the inventory of the EP’s fourth legislature PE4 (1994 - 1999).
The European official legal acts include the EU treaties (primary legislation) and all regulations, directives and decisions derived from the treaties’ objectives (secondary legislation). These files cover the period between 2005 and 2009 and add to the current collection that includes all primary and secondary legal acts produced between 1985 and 2004. The documents are relevant to understand the legal process leading to the adoption of various acts at the European level and the role of the EP therein, from the initial proposals to their implementation in Member States.
Consult the inventory of the legal official acts adopted by the EP in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Finally, the new set of files from the cabinets of the Secretaries-General of the European Parliament between 1958 and 1986 illustrates the administrative work of the Parliament and concerns specifically the mandates of the following Secretaries-General: Frits de Nerée tot Babberich, from 1958 to 1963; Hans Nord, from 1963 to 1979; and Hans Joachim Opitz, from 1979 to 1986. These files document the role of the Secretaries-General, who coordinate legislative work, organise the EP’s plenary sessions and meetings, and provide technical assistance and expertise to parliamentary bodies and MEPs.
Consult the inventory of the Cabinets of the Secretaries-General of the European Parliament.
A total of 10,149 files from the Council of the European Union were made available in 2019. These files were transferred to the HAEU from the Council’s Archives Service along with their detailed inventories. The Council also sent a facsimile copy of the Maastricht Treaty, which is now on permanent display at the HAEU in Florence. All new files of the Council are available for consultation in digital format through the HAEU database.
A first set of files concerns the legal acts (‘actes juridiques’) adopted by the Council in the years 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985. Legal acts include regulations, directives, and decisions adopted by the Council of the European Communities following the objectives set out in the treaties. The second set of files pertains to the Council’s meetings held in the years 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. The third and last set concerns the Coreper meetings of the years 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. These files provide major information on the inter-governmental and inter-institutional negotiations leading to the adoption of various legal acts in the 1980s, and shed light on the decisive role of the Council, of Coreper and of the Council’s various committees, in the decision-making processes taking place at the Community level in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
Consult the fonds of the Council in the HAEU database.
A total of 381 original files transferred by the European Investment Bank were treated by HAEU archivists in 2019, and the regrouping of multi-lingual files resulted in 266 new files, made available in digital format in the HAEU database.
Pertaining to the EIB Board of Directors, the minutes, in all three language versions (EN-FR-DE), of its meetings held between 1981 and 1988 are now available. The files provide relevant information related to the meetings’ participants, agenda, deliberations and decisions resulting from these meetings. These files from the EIB Board are supplemented by a series of documents pertaining to two of its Working Groups created between 1979 and 1984 with the purpose of producing strategic reports on EIB’s activities and its medium-term perspectives.
A series of annual reports covering the period 2016-2017 including the EIB Group’s activity, financial and statistical reports, are now also available. The series is enriched by working papers prepared by the EIB’s Economics Department, which provide economic analyses and studies to support the Bank in its operations as well as in its positioning, strategy and policy decisions. Also included are a series of reports drawn up by various divisions of the Bank, most notably those of the Audit Committee and of the Operations Evaluation Department.
A collection of commemorative medals marking the creation of the EIB, namely 12 bronze and silver medals (10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th anniversary of the EIB) and a coin (50th anniversary) were also transferred at the HAEU to integrate the EIB fonds.
Finally, the fonds has been enriched by the first transfer of a collection of original photographs: 252 positives were transferred at the HAEU and described. The photographs, available on the HAEU database, illustrate several projects funded by the European Investment Bank in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg, thereby reflecting European industrial development in the 1960s. It is a unique visual testimony of the industrial development that took place in parts of Europe during the 1960s. The industrial scenes are interesting as regards content and aesthetics. Indeed, artists behind the camera include renowned photographers such as the Venetian photographer Dino Jarach, the then-veteran French Henri Baranger, specialized in industrial photography, and the photographers of the Neapolitan family Parisio who was recently ‘rediscovered’ as amongst the most important Italian photographers of the 20th century.
These new visual materials complement the textual material of the EIB in documenting the different steps leading to the realisation of the EIB projects – from the original idea to the signature of the loan contract, including the legal file, the control and monitoring, and the financial files reporting payments and reimbursements.
Consult the fonds of the European Investment Bank in the HAEU database.
Over the course of the year 2019, the HAEU received, treated and published in the archival database a total 60.448 files, 90% of which belong to EU institutional holdings (53.559 files). With the 2019 reception and publication of archival material, the HAEU database now contains 449.965 files in 258 archival fonds, 861 authority files (ISAAR notes) and 686 oral history interviews.