EU Constitutionalism and the German Basic Law. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5 No. 1A, January 2005

Geiger, Rudolf. (2005) EU Constitutionalism and the German Basic Law. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5 No. 1A, January 2005.

Abstract

[From the introduction]. European integration has always constituted a substantial part of German politics ever since the end of the Second World War. This was true from the very beginning, even before the formal establishment of the Federal Republic, and it is still so today. It is easy to understand why Germany was so interested in European integration when the whole process started after the War. On the one hand, there was, as in the other European states, a keen desire for a lasting peace and for reconstructing the devastated continent, the same desire that found expression in the United Nations Charter where the founding states declared in the Preamble that their peoples were determined: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in their lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.” And on the other hand, it was Germany’s objective to eventually lose the status of an outcast, regain an honorable reputation, and be accepted on an equal footing again in the family of European states.