№ 4 - 2002
Griffiths R.T.
The Foundations of European Integration 96

In an application for European Union membership, according to the viewpoint developed in the article, Russia could in actual reality contemplate an early adhesion to some policy areas and pledge to join the rest at a later date. True, it has never been done before, the author stresses, but neither, he continues, had the joining of two mortal enemies (France and Germany) in a supranational community: European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) founded in 1951. It was the famous Schuman Plan announced in the French Foreign Minister Schuman’s radio broadcast of the 9th of May, 1950, that laid the foundation of the ECSC, and the latter, in its turn, laid the foundation of postwar European integration from which Russia has for many years been excluded and has excluded herself. However, the author makes an attempt to unravel the reasons why that particular policy option was chosen to resolve the problems faced over fifty years ago, and why it could fulfill the same needs today. The author retraces both prehistory and history of the conceiving of the Plan. It is demonstrated in the article, why the Plan could not have been worked out earlier and why, at the same time, even a few days’ delay would have made its announcement senseless.