Reshaping the Project: the European People’s Party Group and the Revival of the European Community (1979–1986)

This article aims to shed new light on the role of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European revival of the early 1980s, which culminated in the Single European Act (1986), the first global reform of the Treaties of Rome (1957). Despite the ongoing development of the historiographical debate, the existing literature has so far paid little attention to the impact of non-state actors on the creation of the “new treaty”. With a few exceptions, scholars have emphasised the central role of the Member States, EC institutions (e.g. the European Commission) and a few prominent personalities (including Jacques Delors and Altiero Spinelli). Conversely, the contribution of transnational networks and European political groups in shaping the “second birth” of the EC has often been overlooked. To address this gap, the article examines the strategy of the EPP Group, a historical driving force of European integration and one of the most influential political groups in the European Parliament. The article is divided into three sections. Firstly, it reconsiders the external and internal factors that led the EPP to identify the institutional reform and the completion of the common market as two of the key pillars of its strategy. Secondly, it combines two interrelated levels of analysis: on the one hand, it examines the ideal and pragmatic reasons behind this peculiar strategy; on the other, it investigates the combination of channels, links and tactics through which the EPP sought to achieve its ultimate goals. In the third section, the article focuses on the EPP’s commitment to the opening of an Intergovernmental Conference to reform the Treaties of Rome. Finally, it offers an overall assessment of the EPP’s influence on relance, highlighting the achievements and the shortcomings of the Group’s action at the various levels of the process (institutional, economic, intellectual and diplomatic).