The Federation francaise des maisons de l'Europe (1960-2000): the career of a grass-rooted activism for Europe

Since its creation in 1961, the French Federation of Europe's Houses (FFME) aims to inform populations about the European integration in their urban area, thus providing a local background for EU issues. Nowadays, the organization plays an important role within the actors dealing with EU information. Nevertheless, this emphasis on a local perspective has been challenged in the past by political and ideological views on federalism and since the beginning of the 1990's, has been significantly transformed by the increasing professionalization of the executives of the French Europe's Houses. Internal dynamics (i.e. the institutionalization of the network of Europe Houses) as well as external relations (with other associations aiming to promote the EU, such as the European Movement or the Union for a Federal Europe, but also with supranational actors such as the International Federation of Europe Houses or the European institutions) have shaped this dialectic between a politicized and neutral conception of European integration.