Conference:

Economics and Integration in Western and Eastern Europe after the Second World War
Wirtschaftliche Integrationsprozesse in West- und Osteuropa nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg

Organizers:
André Steiner (Centre for Research on Contemporary History (ZZF) at Potsdam),
in co-operation with Ray Stokes (Centre for Business History in Scotland at the University of Glasgow) and Werner Plumpe (Chair of Economic and Social History at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main)

March 29-31, 2007, Potsdam
Languages: German and English

The origins of the two blocs which came into existence in Europe in the wake of the Cold War were of course political in the first instance, but economic motives were also of considerable importance. In the west, one aim was to bind the western German economy—which was vital for the economic reconstruction of Europe—politically to the rest of western Europe. In the east, too, economic components became more and more important for the process of bloc formation, although somewhat later than in the west. To an ever increasing degree, the process of integration in both west and east, despite political origins, became an economic project. The process made greater strides in western Europe than in the east, where the planned economy set intrinsic limits to the pace and extent of such developments. Western Europe proceeded from the stage of trade integration to factor integration. An economic community was called into existence and a certain degree of institutional integration achieved. In contrast, COMECON, which was based on bilateral exchange of goods and trade agreements, did not realise economic integration in the sense of a union of national economies into a single economic space. East-central Europe for the most part did not move beyond the stage of trade integration.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957, the Centre for Research on Contemporary History at Potsdam, in co-operation with the Centre for Business History in Scotland at the University of Glasgow and the Chair of Economic and Social History at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, is organizing a conference on economics and integration in western and eastern Europe between the 1950s and the 1980s. The current state of research on the economic history of European integration within the two blocs—as well as the interaction between them—will be summarised and also problematised, while new findings will be presented and discussed.

Program

Thursday, March, 29

6:00 pm

Welcoming speech by ZZF’s Director, Martin Sabrow

Werner Plumpe / André Steiner
Dimensionen wirtschaftlicher Integrationsprozesse in West- und Osteuropa nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Dimensions of processes of economic integration in western and eastern Europe after the end of World War II)

Friday, March, 30

9:30 – 12:00 am

1. Sektion: Interessen der Wirtschaft im Integrationsprozeß
Interests of Business in the Integration Process

Francesca Fauri, University of Bologna
What Italian Business Disliked about a European Common Market

Werner Bührer, TU München
Warum unterstützten die Spitzenverbände der westdeutschen Industrie die europäische Integration?
(Why did the leading organisations of the West German indutries support the European integration?)

Matthias Kipping, York University, Toronto, Canada/Neil Rollings, University of Glasgow
‘Europe from the Bottom up’: The Role of Business in the Integration Process

Ralf Ahrens, Universität Jena
Spezialisierungsinteresse und Integrationsaversion im Rat für Gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe: Der DDR-Maschinenbau in den 70er Jahren
(Interest in specialisation and aversion against integration within the Comecon: GDR’s mechanical engineering in the 1970s)

1:00 – 3:00 pm

2. Sektion: Integrationsprozesse in einer Branche: Der Fall der Automobilindustrie
Integration Processes in an Industrial Sector: The Case of the Automobile Industry

Giuliano Maielli, University of London
New Game - Old Rules? The Integration of the European Car Market, 1966-1980

Valentina Fava, Università L.Bocconi, Milan
The Economic Integration in the Comecon Bloc - Specifically Taking into Account the Automobile Sector Case

Andrei Sokolov, Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
“The Deal of the Century”: International Cooperation in the Construction of the Automobile Car Plant in Togliatty, the USSR. 1966-1974

3:30 – 6:00 pm

Exkurs / Excursus:
Katrin Rücker, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris/ Universität Marburg
Warum die Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion der EWG in den 1970er Jahren scheiterte? Neue Ergebnisse über die französischen, deutschen und britischen Gründe
(Why did EEC’s economic and monetary union failed in the 1970s? New research results about the French, German and British reasons)

3. Sektion: Die Wahrnehmung und Reaktion in Osteuropa auf den westeuropäischen Integrationsprozeß
Reception and Reactions in Eastern Europe to the Western European Integration Process

Suvi Kansikas, University of Helsinki
The Policy Goals of the Soviet Union in Regard to the Process of West European Integration in the 1960’s and 1970’s

Dagmara Jajesniak-Quast, Centre for Research on Contemporary History, Potsdam
Zwischen Hammer und Amboß - die polnische und tschechoslowakische Wirtschaftspolitik im Angesicht der westeuropäischen Wirtschaftsintegration.
(Between hammer and anvil: Polish and Czechoslovakian economic policy facing the economic integration in western Europe

Martin Dangerfield, University of Wolverhampton
Turning Inwards or Turning Outwards? The CMEA, Socialist Economic Reform and East-West Economic Relations between 1976 and 1985

Saturday, March, 31

10:00 – 12:30 am

4. Sektion: Die Ökonomie der Ost-West-Beziehungen im Integrationsprozeß
The Economics of East-West Relations in the Integration Process

Sibylle Gausing, Centre for Research on Contemporary History, Potsdam
Zwischen Liberalisierungswunsch und Schutzbedürfnis - das Verhältnis der westdeutschen Wirtschaft zum innerdeutschen Handel
Between the desire for liberalisation and the urge for protection: The attitude of West Germany’s economy toward the inner-German trade)

Juhana Aunesluoma, University of Helsinki
Not Between, But a Part of Both Blocs. Finland’s East-West Integration, 1957-1973

Richard Coopey, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Economics, integration and disintegration: development and trade in advanced technology between and within eastern and western Europe, 1950 – 1990

Matthias Judt, Centre for Research on Contemporary History, Potsdam
Westeuropäische Integration als Instrument der "verschuldeten" Modernisierung in der DDR?
(Western European integration as an instrument of GDR’s „indebted“ modernisation

An der Teilnahme Interessierte werden gebeten, sich bis zum 16. März 2007 bei Matthias Judt (ZZF) unter judt@zzf-pdm.de anzumelden.
People, who would like to attend the conference, are advised to contact Matthias Judt (Centre for Research on Contemporary History, eamail: judt@zzf-pdm.de) by March 16, 2007.