This paper reconstructs the emergence of European economic governance (EEG) between the breakdown of the pre-1914 economic order and the consolidation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1964. A subsequent paper will extend this analysis through an institutional history of EEG, from the Committee of Governors to the European Monetary Institute, from the European Central Bank to the 2024 reform of the Stability and Growth Pact. Methodologically, the study combines archival and official primary sources with historical and historiographical analysis, supported by insights from political economy, international relations, economic history and theory, and quantitative evidence. Accordingly, this research seeks to answer the following questions:

• Why the cooperative arrangements built after 1945 proved more durable than those attempted after the First World War?
• Which political, economic, and institutional forces transformed European interdependence into increasingly formal structures of governance?
• What were the defining characteristics of the European economy between 1914 and 1964?

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