After the founding of the European Communities the Adenauer government used EEC as a forum for creation of a European power policy with the aim of establishing European political union.
West German diplomacy tried to balance national interests in Western Europe. Germany, in particular, Chancellor Adenauer always hoped to reduce the Franco-British as well as the European-American tensions, knowing that he never could commit himself to one side completely because national German interests and his own European policy approach would not allow him to do so.
With the onset of the Cold War in 1947-48 integration became an important object of the practical politics of Western European governments.
September 1949 the Adenauer government pursued three main foreign policy goals: the abolition of the occupation statue, international recognition as a sovereign state in order to become an equal member of the community of states and the solution of the unification question. Their realization required unconditional orientation towards the western democracies. This meant the support of the European integration process.
In the 1950s Bonn's foreign policy was influenced by two fundamental controversies. On the one hand there was the struggle between the Christian Democratic government and the Social Democratic opposition about the priority to be given to Western integration or reunification, and on the other hand there were the discussions about the right method of integration.
In postwar West Germany institutions for economic administration served as the embryonic form of political structures.
The European Recovery Program exerted a formative role on the emerging West German state and economy. Program helped influence how policy was made - by mobilizing an extensive network of interest groups within and across national lines. Just as crucial, it decisively integrated the West German political economy with the Western countries.
