Comparativa schuman - churchuill

Sara García Tejedo
Instituciones Jurídicas de la Unión Europea
Grupo: AN

Comparative between the Speech by Winston Churchill, 19 September 1946 at the University of Zurich in Switzerland andthe Schuman Declaration.

The objective of this essay is to compare and analize the similarities and the differences between the speech that Winston Churchill gave the 19th September 1946 in theUniversity of Zurich and the Schuman Declaration by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. In order to understand both texts we must first make a brief introduction that refers to the issues thatboth documents deal with.

In the first place, it is important to understand the context and background in which the speech given by Winston Churchill took place.

After the Conservatives’ defeatin the 1945 British elections, Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister and hero of the war that had just ended, turned into a keen supporter of Franco-German reconciliation. As leader of theOpposition, he made a united Europe his principal foreign policy objective. On several occasions during his visits to Europe and America, he expressed his views on the future of Europe. On 19 September 1946,at the University of Zurich, he gave a speech on European unity that caused a sensation.

In his speech, Churchill rehearsed well-worn arguments, but this time he gave them an unprecedentedimpact. By advocating Franco-German rapprochement and proposing ‘a kind of United States of Europe’ (but without the involvement of Great Britain), Churchill set the scene for a future federation ofnon-Communist Western European nations. He declared himself in favour of a European third way, which might find its niche between the USA and the USSR. He also advocated the creation of a Council ofEurope.

To continue, The Schuman Declaration (9 May 1950) is a governmental proposal by then-French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to create a new form of organization of States in Europe called a...