Page contents > Introduction | Count Coudenhove-Kalergi | Denis Healey | European Movement
Introduction
The European Parliamentary Union was founded by Count Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi. Kalergi's aim was to draft a European Constitution and the organisation asked over 4000 members of Parliament from 13 European countries to decide for or against a European federation in the style of the United Nations.
The EPU's third conference was held in September 1949 in Venice where delegates voted in favour of greater European political integration and an extension of the powers of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.
After the founding of the Council of Europe, the EPU merged with the European Movement.
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Count Coudenhove-Kalergi
Count Richard Nikolaus Eijiro von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1972) was an Austrian politician and philosopher, recognised as the founder of the first popular movement for a united Europe.
In 1922 Coudenhove-Kalergi founded the pan-European Union with Archduke Otto van Habsburg. In the following year he wrote 'Pan-Europa', a manifesto for the Paneuropean Movement. The movement pursued four main principles: libertarian, Christian, social and European.
After the war had ended, Coudenhove-Kalergi returned to France and in 1947 he circulated an enquiry to politicians across Europe. This enquiry led to the foundation of the European Parliamentary Union.
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Letter from Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi to Ronald Mackay, regarding The Hague Congress and the European Union, 8 March 1948. Copyright of the European Movement. (MACKAY/2/2)
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Denis Healey
Denis Healey (1917-) is a British life peer and Labour politician. He was Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.
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Letter from Denis Healey, Labour Party to Ronald Mackay, regarding a meeting of Mackay's European Parliamentary Group, 15 January 1948. (MACKAY/2/2)
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European Movement
The Movement has its origins in the Congress of the Committee for the Co-ordination of the European Movements which took place in 1947 and saw the foundation of the Joint International Committee for European Unity. On 25 October 1948 the Committee changed its name to the European Movement.
Duncan Sandys was elected president of the new movement and participants included Leon Blum, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Paul Henri-Spaak, all of whom were elected honorary presidents.
The European Movement played a vital role in the establishment of the Council of Europe in 1949.
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Circular in support of the European Union, published by the European Parliamentary Union: British All Party Group, 17 January 1949. Copyright of the European Movement UK. (MACKAY/5/5)
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