Between Charlemagne ande Atlantis: Belgium and the Netherlands during the first stages of European Integration (1950-1966)

The traditional image of the Benelux as a forerunner of European integration still dominates the historiography. This has stengthened an image of highly effective Belgian-Dutch cooperation during the formative years of European integration. Only relatively recently, historians have balanced this image and de-mystified the success of the Belgian-Dutch partnership during the first decades of European integration. In this article we take the research a step further.We add two new elements in order to deepen the analysis of the Belgian-Dutch cooperation. First, we outline the patterns of discord at work behind the Benelux partnership. Second, we broaden and lengthen the span of research by incorporating all the main stages during the entire period of the formative years of European integration (950-1966), aimed at highlighting the constants of cooperation and discord between Belgium and the Netherlands. The aticle is based on new bi-national archival research and is complemented by a close reading of existing Dutch language literature and ego-documents. Reprinted by permission of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft