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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

📰 Staff of Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet put together some 'line to takes' and a narratives -in the form of potential Q&As for the press on the Schuman Declaration - mainly focused on the anti-cartel aspect of the future coal and steel pool.

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The Schuman Plan as seen by cartoonists back in 1950. All published in the aftermath of Schuman declaration. #EUHistory #EuropeDay🧵🇪🇺

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Spain’s accession to the EU as seen by cartoonists in 70s and 80s 🇪🇸🇪🇺 40 years ago, Spain signed the Accession Treaty. Here, a collection of what that moment looked like through the eyes of cartoonists from other EU countries back them 🧵 #EspañaEnEuropa #EspañaenlaUE

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"In the morning, I still had no idea that the day would bring news of a decisive turning point in the development of Europe". Konrad Adenauer about that letter he received from Schuman a day...

I wrote a bit about the days before the Schuman plan and the events around it 6 May - the final text www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop... 7 May - the letter to Adenauer www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop... 8 May - his reply www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop... 9 May www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

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"In the morning, I still had no idea that the day would bring news of a decisive turning point in the development of Europe". Konrad Adenauer about that letter he received from Schuman a day before hi...

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Bonus: There were 9 drafts of the Schuman Declaration, written by Jean Monnet. The most famous quote “Europe will not be made at once, or according to a single plan” was not included until the very last one. bsky.app/profile/pabl...

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💣🕊️ Communist parties across Europe echoed Moscow’s outrage. The Schuman Plan, they claimed, was “a plan for war, not peace,” dictated by “American imperialists” and laying the groundwork for World War III.

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🫂 During WWII, Monnet reflected on how to restore peace. "We must plant in the minds of Europeans the ideas that will make possible restore democratic institutions (...) & the conviction that they will only find such solutions (peace and prosperity) through international cooperation".

🇪🇺 Monnet’s vision went far beyond coal and steel. He proposed a supranational authority, independently financed, composed of members not tied to national interests...an embryo of what would become the European Commission.

🇬🇧🛑 In general, the public was favourable towards Robert Schuman’s declaration. Some suspected it was a cover for a new steel cartel. Diplomatically, most European governments didn't want to be left behind. The UK, however, declined to join.

📜 The Schuman Plan was approved by the French Government late in the same morning of 9 May 1950. On the same day, it was officially submitted to the governments of Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as to the German Chancellor.

Monnet feared sabotage from political parties, unions, and industrial lobbies. The French Parliament was kept in the dark. "Never has the French National Assembly been treated with such contempt", said a Socialist Member of the Parliament.

✍🏻 Jean Monnet refused to sign his name to the Declaration publicly...even if he masterminded every word. The reason? political legitimacy. He believed the idea would only succeed if it came from a politican, so he handed it to Robert Schuman.

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📸 You’ve seen the videos and photos of Schuman delivering the Declaration. Well, those are not from 9 May 1950. The press was informed last minute, so no journalists in the room. The speech was later recorded for posterity...and the photo was taken a month and a half later.

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European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 26/04/2026

9 'curiosities' about 9 of May | The Declaration that changed Europe (and the world). #EuropeDay #EUHistory 🇪🇺🧵

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Researchers, do you want to enhance your work's impact through smart #IntellectualProperty management? The European Union Intellectual Property Office has some great advice, covering the entire research lifecycle. Watch 👇 [or download the infographic 👉 buff.ly/vNElJpV] @pablopereza.bsky.social

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

"Now we will also impose tariffs. It is a stupid process. But we have to do it. We will now impose tariffs on Harley Davidson, on blue jeans, Levis, on Bourbon. We can also do stupid. We also have to be this stupid" Juncker responding to Trump's trade tariffs to the EU (in 2018)

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The European Commission has been doing this 'medal count' since Mexico 1968. Footage from the EC Audiovisual Library

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Catio Miles @catiomiles.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

This is great reaction 👇

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Sometimes diplomacy isn’t about what you say. It’s about how long you breathe before saying nothing. Watch Kaja Kallas listening to Mike Waltz US representative to the UN at Munich Security Conference.

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Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Norway not joining the EU is definitely up there as a "what if", but I think Brexit vote (2016), EU constitution failure (2005) and especially French parliament voting down the creation of an EU based around a unified EU military (1954) are the top three in my mind.

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Oh yes...the European Defence Community is definitely at the top. Totally agree. bsky.app/profile/pabl...

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Video: footage of the signing ceremony of the Accession Treaty (22 January 1972) from the European Commission Audiovisual Library. PS: yes, Jean Monnet and many of the major political figures of the early days of the EU project (Hallstein and Bech included) were present at the signing ceremony.

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The biggest “what if” in the history of the EU? On 22 January 1972, Norway signed the Accession Treaty to join the European Economic Community (alongside Denmark, Ireland and the UK) Unlike the others, Norway never joined. I wrote a short text about it here: www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Greenland PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen: "If we have to choose between the US & Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU." "Greenland does not want to be owned by the US. Greenland does not want to be governed by the US" he later added.

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

"No more fitting tribute to what you are doing than to cite the words of Jean Monnet, the father of European unity: "You are not making a coalition of states; you are uniting peoples" 📹 Audiovisual Library of the European Commission

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

"This meeting symbolizes America's abiding commitment to a strong and united Europe and to the European Community" Jimmy Carter during the first visit of a US President to the EU institutions | 6 January 1978, Brussels.

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

6 January 1977 | Roy Jenkins 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧, the first (and only) President of the European Commission from the UK, takes Office. Voted unanimously by the EU countries. "Our means are and have been economic. Our end remains, as it was from the beginning, political". #EUHistory🇪🇺

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

In 1996, EU Commissioner Erkki Liikanen received Santa Claus in Brussels. They met, they did a press point and they discussed the accusations of Santa's monopolistic position, among other topics.

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Chris Kendall @ottocr.at · 10/12/2025

The European Union hasn’t won the FIFA Peace Prize, but it has won the Nobel Peace Prize. With reason. (Some of our members have won the FIFA World Cup.) 🇪🇺🕊️ ht @pablopereza.bsky.social

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

This image was published in 1948. Europe tied down, pressured from both sides, while others pull the strings and wait for collapse. The context has changed. The dynamics feel somehow familiar. Gave me a hook to write how to win an info war as the one we are in www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Eisenhower said it was a "historic need" Kennedy talked about "admiration" to EU project. Nixon went for "less lecturing Europe and more listenig" Reagan: "moral success" Obama: "great achievement of human history" ... The US-EU relations by US Presidents www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

"Qui aurait pu penser, il y a encore deux ans, que les douze pays membres se mettraient d’accord sur deux perspectives aussi ambitieuses que celles que représentent l’Union économique et monétaire d’une part, et l’Union politique d’autre part?" Jacques Delors 🇪🇺 #EUhistory

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

1 November 1993 | the Maastricht Treaty enters into force 🇪🇺 It established the EU, the cooperation on foreign and security policy and on justice and home affairs, the economic and monetary union, paved the way for the euro, 'created' the EU citizenship... #EUHistory #OnThisDay

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Pablo Perez @pablopereza.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Let people actually see the EU being built. Show, not just say. 60 years ago, a small team in Brussels set up a radio and TV studio. And that was their mission. This video is from the launch. The European Commission has studios available since 1965 - more www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

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PS: I LOVE propaganda posters back in those days

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Bonus track, cartoons about the European Defence Community back in those days. And yes, sometimes the EU advances by changing route, not destination. More about the European Defence Community in this piece I wrote on @ecmemes.bsky.social site www.dg-meme.eu/meme/2023/05...

Jean Monnet resigned, with this letter, from the High Authority (predecesor of the European Commission) and looked ahead. In his farewell speech he left a line for the ages: "What we started will continue: the United States of Europe" The dream didn't die, it changed path

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The aftermath reset the board: West Germany entered NATO in 1955; Western European Union became a weaker substitute; integration shifted back to economics and later, foreign policy coordination.

Historians highlights many reasons for the rejection: concerns about a conflict faded with death of Stalin, fears of loosing national sovereignty, West Germany's remilitarization, French Communists opposed a plan tying France to the capitalist US, the absence of UK...