Le Grand Continent, Jean-Marc Lieberherr
Jean Monnet’s name is closely associated with the construction of Europe. Architect of the European Coal and Steel Community, first president of its High Authority, the forerunner of the European Commission, tireless spur to European unification at the head of his Action Committee for the United States of Europe, Jean Monnet made the union of Europeans in peace his life’s struggle. If he is little known to the public, it is mainly because he did not hold political office, preferring discreet action and hidden influence to public action, for which he felt no particular talent. And yet, Jean Monnet’s actions shaped the 20th century as few men have done. For the better, say his followers, of whom there are many in pro-European circles. For the worse, say his detractors, who see him as the gravedigger of national sovereignty in favor of an irresponsible European bureaucracy.
The divisions and passions they arouse only serve to confirm the importance of Jean Monnet’s thought and action. They encourage us to understand them better in order to gauge them more accurately. Whether we decide to be inspired by it or reject it outright, we cannot be indifferent to the lesson of a man who, after leaving school at 16 to sell the family cognac around the world, played a decisive role in resolving the two world wars and paved the way for European unification without ever really holding formal power. Jean Monnet wished to record this lesson in his Memoirs, written in 1976, three years before his death. “The historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle had asked him: “Is it possible to write a memoir about the future? If not, the Memoirs would be a political testament and a treatise on action. Since then, the life and work of Jean Monnet have been masterfully illuminated by Eric Roussel’s biography, the “primary source” on Jean Monnet (Jean Monnet, Fayard, 1995).
The republication of Jean Monnet’s Memoirs (Pluriel, April 2022), with prefaces by Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, and an unpublished afterword by Eric Roussel, provides an opportunity to reread and rediscover a text that seems astonishingly relevant today. The dangers and challenges that Europe has been facing for the past 70 years seem to come back to haunt us at regular intervals, without us really being able to provide lasting answers. Could this be a problem of vision, method or both? Perhaps it’s time to look to Jean Monnet’s thought and action (which he believed to be inseparable) for some useful lessons for today and tomorrow. The following passages are taken from the Memoirs , and attempt to uncover little-known aspects of the author’s method of action and his convictions on collective action.
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https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2022/05/09/jean-monnet-leurope-comme-methode-daction/