The Institutional Architecture of the European Defence Community

This chapter analyses the institutional framework of the European Defence Community (EDC). Signed in Paris in 1952 by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands in the aftermath of the devastation of the Second World War, the EDC Treaty aimed to provide Europe with a common army and budget governed by supranational institutions. Its institutional framework combined a Commissariat, a bicameral legislative body consisting of the Common Assembly and the Council of Ministers, and a Court of Justice. This chapter argues that the EDC’s institutional framework sought to establish a carefully calibrated system of checks and balances, reconciling supranational authority with intergovernmental control, democratic accountability, and judicial oversight. Although the EDC Treaty never entered into force, it remains a revealing blueprint for the institutional integration of European defence within a supranational framework—a challenge that the EU continues to face.