"foundation myth"

From SpinelliWiki

The "foundation myth" of the EU is that it has its origins as a peace project to prevent wars between France and Germany. In fact war was impossible between individual members of either of the two blocs during the Cold War. Washington and Moscow would just not have permitted it. The atomic bomb makes inter-State wars in Europe impractical anyway. Most wars are civil wars. ¹

On this page, collect critiques of Spinelli, which boil down to accusations of deceit and lying, and thus the spreading of a "foundation myth". These critiques and accusations are mostly put forward by opponents of the European Union, regardless of their being on the political Right, like The Bruges Group, or on the political Left (the quotation above, for instance, seems to come from a Leftist source).

1 A Communist Plot
2 A History of Deceit
3 An Outdated Myth
4 Footnotes

A Communist Plot

Some Rightist critics of Spinelli tend to see him as the leading exponent of a Communist plot. Lindsay Jenkins' essay Godfather of the European Union: Altiero Spinelli² is a case in point. In his foreword Sir Richard Body writes:

"Of all the Communists in post-war western Europe, Spinelli was the most famous, influential and powerful. This paper offers the clearest evidence that Spinelli was the true architect of the Maastricht Treaty. Although many other Communists have argued for a United States of Europe, most of the others have always been secretive about their ambitions. Spinelli himself was not always totally frank about his dream of a Union, so our author has had to work hard to reveal the truth. Let us applaud what Lindsay Jenkins has done. What is more, let us now ask ourselves what is the difference between the constitutional essence of the old Soviet Union and of the European Union as it is evolving."

A History of Deceit

The Lisbon Reform Treaty "crowns a history of deceit", writes Christopher Booker in October 2007, and continues:

"The Lisbon Treaty, after all, is another giant step towards a new form of government, empowered to decide most of the laws that govern our lives, making our Westminster MPs even more redundant than they are now.(...) It is more than 60 years since one of its progenitors, Altiero Spinelli, wrote that its aim should be stealthily to assemble the components of a supranational government and only to declare its true purpose at the end of the process by unveiling a "constitution". ³

In an earlier article, Booker referred to the draft EU constitution from 1984:

In 1984, Spinelli's Draft Treaty on European Union, including everything from a single currency to a common foreign and defence policy, was accepted by President Mitterrand and other leaders. But it was agreed that such an ambitious leap forward required not one but two new treaties, which would be the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. ⁴

An Outdated Myth

To some, the idea of Spinelli and others of the EU as a peace project is outdated, because the nuclear weapons make wars impractical anyway (cf the quotation at the beginning of this page). According to this analysis the atomic bomb has made the European Union unnecessary.