The Archives Service of the Council of the European Union made a large transfer of documents to the Historical Archives of the European Union this autumn.
Included in the shipment are the original documents from the fonds of the Special Council of Ministers of the European Coal and Steel Community. These documents had previously been digitised and made available online; the HAEU will now store and preserve the newly-arrived originals in its vaults.
The transfer also included the legislative acts adopted by the Council in 1988 and 1989, which comprised more than half of the shipment.
Finally, and of particular interest, are files related to the European Economic Community’s north-south economic partnership with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. The first Lomé Convention, signed in Lomé, Togo, in 1975, set out the principles and objectives of the Community in cooperating with those countries. They consisted of aid and development measures, new trade possibilities and political initiatives.
This transfer included files from the fonds related to Lomé II and Lomé III, successive conventions to Lomé I signed in 1979 and 1984.
Image: HAEU FXO-330, © Ortoli family, used with permission