Congress of Europe

A broad range of philosophers, journalists, church leaders, lawyers, professors, entrepreneurs and historians also took an active role in the congress.

Renamed the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity in December 1947, Sandys was elected its chairman and Retigner its Honorary Secretary.

As Retinger subsequently recalled, "There were heated debates, particularly in the Political Commission as the Federalists, led by Paul Reynaud, called for a European Constituent Assembly directly elected by the people of Europe.

Others wanted a more modest consultative Assembly, more likely to prove more acceptable to the governments...for that reason the call for 'the pooling and transfer of sovereign rights' prevailed over that for a 'Federalist State'".

[10] Marcel Pilet-Golaz, Winston Churchill, Grigore Gafencu, Édouard Daladier, Albert-Édouard Janssen, Antony Eden, Juraj Krnjevic, Knut Kristensen, Indalecio Prieto, Hjalmar J. Procopé, Paul Ramadier, Paul Reynaud, Tadeusz Romer, Paul van Zeeland, Jacques Augarde, Gustav Heinemann, Johannes Hoffmann, François Mitterrand, Konrad Adenauer, Duncan Sandys, Józef Retinger, Léon Chevalme, Alphonse Colle, Maurice Schumann, Auguste Cool, Henri Lambotte, Henri Davezac, Ivo Duchacek, Carl Romme, Gaston Tessier, Živko Topalović, Édouard Bonnefous, Georges Chevrot, Paolo Giobbe; André François-Poncet, André Lefèvre, marquis d'Ormesson, Nicolò Carandini, Étienne Gilson, Charles Morgan, Bertrand Russell, Salvador de Madariaga; Raymond Rifflet, William Rappard, Walter Hallstein, René Capitant, Léon Julliot, Lord Moran, Michel Polonowski, Émile Borel, Gilbert Murray, Peter Fleming, Henry de Ségogne, Jacques Rueff, Maurice Allais, Jan Tinbergen, Harold Butler, Louis Salleron, Jacques Lacour-Gayet, Pierre Hély d’Oissel, Pieter Otten, Adrian Boult, Paul Landowski, Raymond Aron, René Courtin, Walter Layton, Jan Piłsudski, Raymond Silva, Gilberte Brossolette, Frances L. Josephy, Germaine Peyroles, Edmond Michelet, Jean de Suzannet, Hugh Delargy, Jean Mathé, Jean Buchmann, Henri Koch, Altiero Spinelli, André Voisin, Robert Bichet, Alexandre Marc, François de Menthon, Luc Durand-Réville, Robert Lemaignen, Edmond Giscard d’Estaing, Henri Cangardel, Georges Le Brun Kéris.

Meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague , during the congress (May 9, 1948)
Sir Anthony Eden arriving at the Hall of Knights in The Hague (May 9, 1948)
Sir Winston Churchill arriving at the European Congress in The Hague (May 9, 1948)
Winston Churchill opening the congress.