European University Institute Library

Keith Middlemas, [Fonds], 1992-1994

eng

Keith Middlemas

871272548

[Fonds]

The fonds comprises summaries of 400 interviews conducted by a team of historians between 1992 and 1994 as research for Keith Middlemas' book "Orchestrating Europe: the Informal Politics of the European Union 1973-1995". This work, published in 1995, was based on a transnational programme of interviews with a range of practitioners: Commission officials, Commissioners, member and candidate countries administrators, members of the EC/EU Permanent Representations, politicians, regional notables (Catalunya, Emilia Romagna, Rhône-Alpes etc.) and representatives of the industrial, financial and labour sectors. The study aimed to analyse the informal process behind the construction of Europe during a period characterised by the adoption of two important treaties after a decade of stagnation: the Single European Act (1986) completing the internal market and expanding Community competences (research and development, environment etc.; the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union (1992) establishing notably the Economic and Monetary Union in the framework of a Single Market. In that context, the team of historians focused their questions on the role of unofficial contacts between the European institutions and the various interlocutors (even if the conclusion was the tendency of the Commission to formalise these informal contacts). So strategies such as lobbying and bargaining were essential to comprehend the real distribution of power and its importance in the decision-making process. The texts cannot be quoted directly as they are not verbatim transcripts, they can only be paraphrased