« Du « défi américain » à l’expansion européenne : les relations économiques transatlantiques des années 1950 aux années 1970 » / From the “American Challenge” to European expansion: transatlantic economic relations from the 1950s to the 1970s

Economic histories of post-war transatlantic relations have focused on two predominant narratives: US aid for European reconstruction through the Marshall Plan, and the threat of American business investment in Europe. But little research has linked these two elements. Moreover, existing scholarship has neglected the expansion of European companies across the Atlantic. This article remedies these two gaps in the literature by examining transatlantic relations through the perspective of business. In particular, the case of the Belgian grocer Delhaize, its participation in US technical assistance programs in the 1950s, the challenges it faced in the 1960s, and its expansion into US markets in the 1970s offers a new dimension to the history of twentieth-century transatlantic relations and the history of globalization

Trade and the single car market: the EC-Japan elements of consensus, 1985-1999

In 1991, in the midst of the program to create a liberal Single European Market and in the context of a new Joint Declaration for cooperation with Japan, the European Commission brokered a private deal to restrict Japanese imports into the European Community for nearly a decade (1993–1999). These “Elements of Consensus” developed from the collective efforts of European automakers and their business interest associations—the CCMC and ACEA—to shape the Community’s Common Commercial Policy and insulate themselves from the threat of Japanese competition (1985–1991). Drawing evidence from archival documents, this article reconstructs how European automakers lobbied the Commission for protections and how the Commission tried to use these protections as a means for regional market liberalization. As a result, it contributes new dimensions to scholarship on the influence of corporations in politics in general and the relationship between business and European integration in particular

CE marking, business, and European market integration

Many products – from consumer electronics to machinery to children’s toys – bear the CE Mark, the symbol of conformity to the ‘essential requirements’ of European standards. This article traces the development of the system of conformity assessment and certification, called CE Marking, from its origins in the European Community’s (EC) efforts to relaunch the Single European Market in the mid-1980s to its full implementation in the mid-1990s across the European Economic Area (EEA). It focuses in particular on the reforms made to the New Approach to Technical Harmonization and the Global Approach to Testing and Certification and examines the ways business groups responded to the creation of common systems for assessing conformité européenne. This history offers an expansive view of regional market integration and a new perspective on the dynamic between companies and regulators in the European business environment

Europe between Nationalism and Neoliberalism

Transnational, international, multinational, supranational. The lexicon of European integration wrestles with the same Westphalian “nation-state paradigm” that has fragmented so much modern European historiography. For three generations, European integration scholars have debated the complex relationship of the state to the union and offered divergent narratives of the process by which member states pursued cooperation as well as its implications. Early scholarship echoed the ambitions of the federalist architects with a teleology of nations beyond nationalism; later works argued that cooperation actually strengthened and reified the nation-state. Amid the academy’s global turn, a new cohort has moved beyond the state to consider the European Union (EU) and its predecessors in the context of the globalization of both markets and market-oriented policies designed to buttress boundaryless trade. The events of the twenty-first century—from protracted crises to Britain’s exit from the EU—have only intensified debates about the intransience of the nation and the future of interdependence in the region, demanding: How can we understand the history and historiography of contemporary Europe between nationalism and neoliberalism

The origins of CE marking: standards, business, and the European market in the 1980s and 1990s

Many products—from consumer electronics to machinery to children’s toys—bear the CE Mark, the symbol of conformity to the ‘essential requirements’ of European standards governed by the process of CE Marking. This working paper traces the development of the system of conformity assessment and certification from its origins in the European Community’s (EC) efforts to relaunch the Single European Market in the mid-1980s to its full implementation in the mid-1990s across the European Economic Area (EEA). It focuses in particular on the reforms made to the New Approach to Technical Harmonization and the Global Approach to Testing and Certification and examines the ways business groups responded to the creation of common systems for assessing conformité européenne. This history offers an expansive view of regional market integration and a new perspective on the dynamic between companies and regulators in the European business environment

Agents of Integration: Multinational Firms and the European Union

Much of the existing scholarship on the history of the European Union presents twentieth century European integration as a political process. While this narrative rightly acknowledges the immeasurable impact of nation states, European Union institutions and visionary federalists, it is not complete. In response to globalization in the 1970s and 1980s, large European corporations sought to compete with their American and Asian rivals by establishing a pan-European single market without barriers to cross-border business. At times responding to policy changes and at times driving them, these firms adopted a regional strategy and invested broadly across Europe, particularly in the markets of the European peripheries, which offered both cheap, skilled labor and a huge consumer market with pent-up demand, all at close proximity to firm headquarters. By establishing value chain and subsidiary networks across the region, firms from every sector of the economy - including the French investment bank Paribas, German auto manufacturers Volkswagen and BMW, British retailer Tesco and Belgian retailer Delhaize - contributed to the integration of economies and facilitated the practical achievement of a common European market. Thus, motivated by their own profit interests, multinational firms facilitated the achievement of the four freedoms integral to an economically-united Europe: the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor across a single, common market. This dissertation analyzes the role of multinational firms as agents of European integration from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Methodologically, it engages with the practices of both economic and business history and draws evidence from archives, including those from both firms and EU institutions. It equally makes use of oral history interviews with EU commissioners and members of parliament, lobby groups, and executives from leading European multinational corporations. Its aim is to intervene in the current body of European Union scholarship and contribute to a nuanced understanding of the history of European integration by including the role of the private sector

Agents of Integration: Multinational Firms and the European Union

Much of the existing scholarship on the history of the European Union presents twentieth century European integration as a political process. While this narrative rightly acknowledges the immeasurable impact of nation states, European Union institutions and visionary federalists, it is not complete. In response to globalization in the 1970s and 1980s, large European corporations sought to compete with their American and Asian rivals by establishing a pan-European single market without barriers to cross-border business. At times responding to policy changes and at times driving them, these firms adopted a regional strategy and invested broadly across Europe, particularly in the markets of the European peripheries, which offered both cheap, skilled labor and a huge consumer market with pent-up demand, all at close proximity to firm headquarters. By establishing value chain and subsidiary networks across the region, firms from every sector of the economy - including the French investment bank Paribas, German auto manufacturers Volkswagen and BMW, British retailer Tesco and Belgian retailer Delhaize - contributed to the integration of economies and facilitated the practical achievement of a common European market. Thus, motivated by their own profit interests, multinational firms facilitated the achievement of the four freedoms integral to an economically-united Europe: the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor across a single, common market. This dissertation analyzes the role of multinational firms as agents of European integration from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Methodologically, it engages with the practices of both economic and business history and draws evidence from archives, including those from both firms and EU institutions. It equally makes use of oral history interviews with EU commissioners and members of parliament, lobby groups, and executives from leading European multinational corporations. Its aim is to intervene in the current body of European Union scholarship and contribute to a nuanced understanding of the history of European integration by including the role of the private sector

Liberal environmentalism: the public-private production of European emissions standards

In the late twentieth century, the European Union emerged as a global leader in setting environmental protections, including vehicle emissions standards. But member state consensus around environmental rules did not come easily, and the regional norms eventually set by the EU and its predecessor, the European Community (EC), had complex origins. This article finds that common emissions standards were ultimately achieved through a public-private process during the program to create a Single Market in the 1980s and 1990s. For regional policymakers, standards were key to achieving an internal car market and strengthening the auto industry’s global competitiveness; for many European carmakers and their transnational business associations, common norms could facilitate economies of scale and level the competitive playing field. The “liberal environmentalism” born out of this convergence of interests produced common standards that fell pragmatically between the greenest member states and those most invested in protecting their national champion firms

Liberalisation or protectionism for the single market? European automakers and Japanese competition, 1985–1999

In 1991, in the midst of the program to create a liberal Single European Market and in the context of a new Joint Declaration for cooperation with Japan, the European Commission brokered a private deal to restrict Japanese imports into the European Community for nearly a decade (1993–1999). These ‘Elements of Consensus’ developed from the collective efforts of European automakers and their business interest associations – the CCMC and ACEA – to shape the Community’s Common Commercial Policy and insulate themselves from the threat of Japanese competition. Drawing evidence from archival documents, this article reconstructs how European automakers lobbied the Commission for protections and how the Commission used these protections as a means for regional market liberalisation. As a result, it contributes new dimensions to scholarship on the influence of corporations in politics in general and the relationship between business and European integration in particular

Letter from the Editors

Grace Ballor and Susan Rosenfel