The decision to house the Historical Archives of the European Union (then Communities) in Florence was directly tied to the presence of the European University Institute (EUI), a prominent academic institution established to promote research on European integration. Interest in founding a European university had already been expressed in the early years of the Communities. Indeed, as early as 1961, the European Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution supporting the idea, proposing the creation of a cross-border institution to strengthen European unity through education and research.
When the EUI opened in the mid 1970s, Max Kohnstamm—a former close collaborator of Jean Monnet and the EUI's first president—articulated the vision of a university dedicated to fostering Europe's cultural and scientific potential through scholarship in its four departments of history, law, economics, and political and social sciences. In its nearly 50 years of existence, the European University Institute has flourished and now counts 23 EU countries as contracting states.
The sustained interest in European integration history cultivated at the EUI led to the creation in 2015 of the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre. This joint initiative of the Archives and the EUI’s Department of History fosters research on the history of European cooperation and integration, supports young researchers, and facilitates the use of primary sources. The historical records housed at the HAEU have thus been successfully integrated into a dynamic academic environment.
The interest in consulting primary sources held by the Historical Archives of the European Union comes from a wide range of scholarly fields. Despite the increasing digitisation of materials, researchers from around the world continue to visit the reading room at the HAEU to consult primary sources in person. Some of these researchers benefit from grants. The Vibeke Sørensen Grant scheme, established in 1993 and renamed in 1997 to honour the memory of Vibeke Sørensen, provides up to ten grants annually. Sørensen was a former researcher at the EUI History Department and a staff member of the HAEU.
During the last decades, more grant opportunities have been set up connected to more specific research projects. These are offered in cooperation with the European Court of Auditors, the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament, the International Visegrad Fund and the European Space Agency. Most of the grant schemes target early career researchers.
Photographs of grant holders: Julien Barbaroux, Pawel Frankowski, Giulia Iapichino, Fabienne Jouty, and Pekka Pohjankoski.
In the development and completion of my PhD thesis on the branding of Europe in the post-war years, the HAEU was absolutely central. During three archival stays, one of them as a Vibeke Sørensen fellow, I experienced the HAEU as a tranquil, but vibrant learning environment. This is not a contradiction: I spent long silent hours in the vaults of the reading room, perusing file after file. At the same time, I remember lively and enjoyable conversations with other scholars working on European integration. Above all, I think of the Archives’ staff, generously sharing their knowledge and sometimes simply sharing my excitement over curious finds and archival work in general.
Grazie mille!
- Marlene Ritter, 2023 Vibeke Sørensen Fellow
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