Organisation for European Economic Co-operation

The body founded in 1948 by sixteen European nations to jointly allocate Marshall Plan aid and liberalise trade among members.

European Recovery Program: The US-funded program, running 1948 to 1952, whose grants the OEEC allocated among member states. The OEEC existed chiefly to run the European side of this program.
Marshall's Harvard speech: George Marshall's June 1947 offer of American aid, made conditional on a European plan drafted by Europeans. The speech's condition that Europeans organise themselves produced the Paris committee and then the OEEC.
OECD: The 1961 Paris-based organisation of industrialised economies that succeeded and broadened the OEEC. When recovery was complete, the OEEC was rebuilt as the OECD with the US and Canada as members.
Paul Hoffman: Head of the Economic Cooperation Administration who demanded European integration as the price of aid. His 1949 call for a genuine common market forced the OEEC beyond allocating grants.
Supranationalism: Decision-making by a common authority whose rulings bind member states directly. The OEEC required unanimity and could not bind members; supranationalists treated that as its fatal flaw.
Country programmes: Annual national recovery plans each member submitted, which the OEEC reviewed and bargained over collectively. The core procedure: members negotiated each other's aid requests rather than dealing with Washington alone.
Committee of European Economic Co-operation: The July 1947 Paris conference of sixteen nations that drafted the joint recovery report. This ad hoc body drafted the report and was converted into the permanent OEEC in 1948.
European Economic Community: The 1958 customs union of six states with supranational institutions, built by treaty rather than unanimity. The Six left OEEC-style loose cooperation for binding integration, provoking the rival EFTA.
Jean Monnet: French planning commissioner who ran France's modernisation plan and shaped Marshall aid use. He drew the integration lessons from OEEC cooperation that led to the Coal and Steel Community.
Intergovernmentalism: Cooperation in which states retain veto power and delegate nothing to common authorities. The OEEC was the era's working model of this method, with a standing council but no binding power.

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