Jean Monnet’s ability to transform the course of history, to change the course of events without using formal power, has been confirmed time and again over the sixty years of his action. Although Jean Monnet never theorized or even formulated a “Monnet method”, it is possible to identify from events and his writings (memoirs, pink notes, speeches) the mainsprings of his method of action and his method of community integration.
Jean Monnet forged a strong conviction early on about the best way to bring about the changes he felt were necessary. From this conviction he drew a few rules that have guided his actions. Fundamentally, Jean Monnet saw himself (his body as well as his mind) as a tool in the service of the mission he had set himself. A tool to be preserved, trained and constantly improved. Jean Monnet’s personal effectiveness therefore stems from a deep understanding of himself.
Reflection and action cannot be dissociated. Confronted with a situation, Jean Monnet forges, through intense reflection, an intimate conviction of what needs to be done (“necessity”), on the basis of which he can only act.
“Very early on, I had the intuition, which became my rule, that reflection and action could not be dissociated”.
“I don’t question the necessity of doing this or that – it’s necessity that leads me to do something that is no longer a choice from the moment I see it clearly”.
As soon as the need for action became clear to Monnet, he concentrated undividedly on his objective, to which everything was subordinate. The precise point on which action is to be taken is selected for its power to bring about change.
“Everything becomes possible if you know how to focus on a precise point that drives the rest”.
“There are no limits, other than those of physical stamina, to the attention you have to pay to what you’re doing if you really want to succeed”.
Jean Monnet took the time to formulate complex ideas simply and forcefully. Once he had convinced himself of the path to follow and found the right words to explain it and convince his interlocutors, he repeated them tirelessly until they were heard.
“At the end of my reflection, I was convinced enough myself to be sure of convincing”.
“I am not afraid to repeat myself when I have arrived at a conviction I want to convey – to repeat the same ideas with the same words and ideas in small numbers, simple in appearance.”
Jean Monnet did not believe he had the qualities or shortcomings he saw as inherent to the exercise of political power: he was not a gifted orator, had no need for public recognition, and wished to focus his actions on the future. On the other hand, he has great powers of conviction, and knows how to identify the power relays and personalities he needs to influence in order to bring his ideas to fruition. This is how he has escaped the wear and tear of political power and exerted his influence on several generations of decision-makers in Europe and the United States.
“I had better things to do than try to exercise power myself: hasn’t my role been for a long time to influence those who hold it, and to make sure they use it when they need to?
“I have no taste for the shadows, but if it’s at the price of self-effacement that I can best get things done, then I choose the shadows.
Jean Monnet’s mode of action and influence did not sit well with the rules of hierarchy and protocol. For him, the mission to be accomplished and the rule of efficiency took precedence over any personal or hierarchical considerations. We saw this in France in 1914, in Washington during the Second World War, and during the Plan episode.
“No [politique] has ever found my way of working, which transgresses hierarchies and upsets routines when necessary, completely natural. And it is necessary to do so in circumstances of crisis when necessity presses us to intervene”.
“It was not natural for me to respect established authority for its own sake”.
Jean Monnet is patient by nature and by training. The brandy trade taught him that you have to wait for the right moment to act, when the environment and mindset are conducive to change. Over and above the point on which to focus action and the people to influence, timing is an essential factor in Monnet’s effectiveness. Crises often present opportunities for action. But it’s important to be well prepared.
“There are no premature ideas, just opportune moments that you have to wait for”.
“Life is generous with opportunities to act, but you have to be prepared for them for a long time through reflection in order to recognize them and use them when they arise”.
“Anything is possible in exceptional moments, as long as you’re ready and have a clear plan at a time when everything is confused”.
In his “Memoirs”, Jean Monnet reflects on the constants in his work, noting: “Situations of a similar nature have provoked in me, at different times, the same reflexes, expressed naturally in the same formulas: “unity of vision and action”, “overall conception”, “pooling of resources”. From the Inter-Allied Committees of 1917 to the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, headed by Monnet until 1975, via the Allied armament program, the modernization plan and, of course, the ECSC, we find the constant elements of a method of collective action that Jean Monnet constantly applied and perfected.
To trigger change, to provoke action, we need to highlight the necessity, because decision-makers only act when faced with necessity. This necessity is highlighted by establishing a common reality, a shared and indisputable diagnosis. It was on these diagnoses, often quantified in the form of “Balance Sheets”, that Monnet relied at every important moment of his action to convince people of the need to act and the resources to be mobilized.
“The Balance Sheets establishing a balance of needs and resources are the milestones of my action (…) Each time, the need for an appropriate form of action will follow on its own”.
“Trust is established naturally between people who have taken a common view of the problem to be solved”.
Collective action does not come naturally to decision-makers, who are used to defending the interests they represent. To get them to change their attitude and work together in the same direction, we need to bring out their common interest, and change the psychological context in which they find themselves. This is what Monnet did when he got employers and unions to work together on the plan, or French and Germans to work together on the ECSC.
“Convincing men to talk to each other is the most important thing that can be done for peace (…) This implies that everyone should strive to seek their common interest. This method is not natural to men who meet to deal with problems arising precisely from conflicting interests between national states. They must be brought to understand and apply it.
“Considerable psychological transformations, which some people seek through violent sovereignties, can take place very peacefully if men’s minds are directed towards the point where their interests converge”.
Uniting people and organizing collective action were the great constants in Jean Monnet’s work. From the pooling of wheat purchases and Allied commercial fleets during the First World War, to the proposed Franco-English union and the pooling of German coal and steel, Monnet constantly organized the pooling of resources and collective action for greater efficiency.
“There are only events, what counts is using them to achieve a goal. Mine was joint action. I wanted to show the way and the means to young men seeking to make their lives useful to others.
“It was only when I was urged by friends or journalists to explain the meaning of my work that I realized that I had always been driven towards union, towards collective action”.
There can be no union where there is a spirit of superiority or a desire to impose. Everyone must come with a sincere desire to find common ground, and not with the aim of negotiating a particular advantage. This requires that everyone accepts the principle of equality between the parties, and that no one tries to impose his or her superiority. This is the price of trust.
“From the day I became involved in public affairs, I understood that equality was absolutely essential in relations between peoples as well as between Men”.
“When the problem becomes the same for everyone, and everyone has the same interest in its solution, differences and suspicions fade away, and friendship often takes root.
Jean Monnet’s experience: union is not natural to human beings. If it can be imposed in times of crisis by necessity, it must be perpetuated and organized by law and institutions. Institutions, if well conceived, can also accumulate the wisdom of successive generations. “Men pass away; others will come and take our place. What we can leave them is not our personal experience, which will disappear with us; what we can leave them are institutions.
Union and collective action are made possible by the creation of common interests between peoples, which in turn engender a sense of solidarity and interdependence. These “de facto solidarities” are managed by common institutions in charge of the common European interest. This is the principle behind the pooling of coal and steel, Euratom, the aborted European Defense Community project, the common market and the single currency. By progressively widening the scope of common goods managed by common institutions, we are progressing towards an ever closer union between peoples.
“Our approach started from limited creations, establishing de facto solidarities whose progressive development would later lead to federation”.
” The Community had an object limited to the solidarities enshrined in the treaties, and we had always thought that these solidarities would lead to others and, step by step, to the widest possible integration of human activities (…)”.
A fundamental principle of European institutions is that states freely delegate their sovereignty in limited areas to common institutions. For Monnet, this delegation does not mean a loss of sovereignty for states, but rather the joint exercise of sovereignty in given areas. Monnet sees sovereignty as a combination of authority and capacity for action. So, for states, delegating their sovereignty in order to regain their capacity for action together constitutes a de facto gain in sovereignty.
“The fundamental principle [de la CECA] is the delegation of sovereignty in a limited but decisive area (…). What we must seek is a fusion of the interests of the European peoples, and not merely the maintenance of the balance of these interests”.
“The only effective remedy [aux rivalités nationales] was to change the context, to create a broader sovereignty in which the object of rivalry became common”.
“It will take a long time to show that sovereignty withers when it is frozen in the forms of the past. For it to live, it is necessary to transfer it, as the frameworks of action blossom, into a larger space where it merges with others called to the same evolution. None is lost in this transfer; on the contrary, all are strengthened.
The “Community method”, invented for the Coal and Steel Community, is an original decision-making system which combines the pursuit of the general European interest – in specific fields – by a European executive body (the High Authority for the ECSC, the Commission today), and the exercise of national prerogatives by the States. This method is based on the quest for efficiency, the principle being that issues should be dealt with at the most effective level in view of their nature. This is still the principle that applies today.
” [La méthode d’action communautaire] after a period of trial and error, has become a permanent dialogue between a European body responsible for proposing solutions to common problems, and national governments expressing national points of view. (…) This method is the real federator of Europe”. .
“The characteristic of the method we follow in Europe is to pool the resources of our countries, to have established common institutions to which the national parliaments have agreed to transfer sovereignty and granted decision-making powers, and to act according to common rules applying to all without discrimination.
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