Lise Rye

Lise Rye is Professor of Contemporary European History at the NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. She researches the history of European integration after World War II, with a special focus on the history of the EU, EFTA, Norway's relations with the EU, and the EEA agreement. The goal of her research is to understand why different forms of integration arise, how the development of the EU can be explained, and how integration affects democracy, both in the member states and at the European level.

The project

Title: “At the heart of history”. Simone Veil and the quest for European level democracy

"The aim of this research is to understand why different forms of integration emerge, how the development of the EU can be explained, and how integration affects democracy, in the member states and at European level.In this project, I move away from the intergovernmental and institutional approaches that have inspired several fine studies of the origins and development of the European communities (Milward, 1992; Kaiser, Leucht and Rasmussen, 2009). Instead, I take an actor-centered approach to the study of the quest for democracy in Europe. The aim is to bring European integration closer to its citizens, by means of an approach that highlights lived experiences of the absence of democracy as well as of the quest to build democracy on a political level above the nation states. Informed by constructivist theory, the theoretical starting point for the project is that human agents construct and reproduce social reality through their daily practices (Risse, 2004). As signaled by the working title, the project puts French Simone Veil (1927-2017) at its center. Simone Veil was 16 years old when she was arrested on the street in Nice. Her journey went via Bercy to Auschwitch-Birkenau and from there to Bergen-Belsen. Veil's entire close family was deported. She never saw her father and brother again. Her mother died in Bergen-Belsen. As Minister of Health and Social Security in France (1974-79), she was central to the work to decriminalize abortion – a process that strengthened women's rights and thus democracy. As president of the first directly elected European Parliament, she became a symbol of a more democratic EC and a tireless advocate for integration as a means of to prevent new war (Veil, 2007). Simone Veil remained a member of the European Parliament until 1993, which means that she participated in this parliament’s struggle to ensure democratic formulation of, and control with the implementation of, common European policies in a period where this parliament managed to strengthen its role vis-à-vis the other institutions. She truly lived a life at the heart of events that shaped Europe in the 1900s."

Hosting institution: Archives Nationales

Selective Bibliography

• Graneng, Kristine; Rye, Lise. (Forthcoming) Where to Wriggle? Norwegian Politicians’ Presentations of Autonomy within the EEA Association. West European Politics (FWEP)
• Germond, Carine Sophie; Rye, Lise. (2024) Teaching European Union politics: the perspective of history. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Rye, Lise; Graneng, Kristine. (2023) «Et skjebnefellesskap» – europapolitikken under Søreide. Internasjonal Politikk
• Rye, Lise. (2022) En kort introduksjon til EUs historie. Cappelen Damm Akademisk Cappelen Damm Akademisk
• Rye, Lise. (2020) The Legitimacy of the EU in Historical Perspective: History of a Never-ending Quest. European Papers (EP)