tualisations of modern democracy of the 17th and 18th centuries : the idea of a brotherhood of individuals across nations . From that point of view , the first concrete steps towards European integration in the mid-20th century can be understood as a fulfilment of early democratic ideas .
Some might question this last assertion on the grounds that the Schuman Declaration – the text Jean Monnet wrote and Robert Schuman endorsed , laying out those very first concrete steps – opened the door to technocracy , to solutions from above , or even , as Alan Milward argues , first and foremost to a rescuing of the nation state 2 . Underlying this idea is a myth that it is important to dispel . On the one hand , the beginnings of European integration drew on a staunch humanist tradition , espoused by , for example , Pierre Uri , one of Monnet ’ s closest collaborators , and Alexandre Marc , theorist of European federalism . On the other hand , since early on , Monnet had insisted on the need for a direct democratic vote to elect the European legislature . This view was shared by close allies , including a few other founding fathers : Paul-Henri Spaak and Alcide De Gasperi , who became Presidents of the Common Assembly , and Robert Schuman , first President of the European Parliamentary Assembly , later renamed the European Parliament . Even after Monnet relinquished the lead executive powers of the very first European community ( the European Coal and Steel Community ) when he stepped down as president of its High Authority in 1955 , he continued to push for a directly elected European Parliament . This can be observed in the proceedings of many of the meetings of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe , the initiative to further European unity that Monnet was to steer for the next 20 years . Monnet concluded the work of the Action Committee in 1975 , after the European Heads of State or Govern-
2 . A . S . Milward , The European rescue of the nation-state .
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