La Commission centrale pour la navigation du Rhin

The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine was born after the Napoleonic wars within the Final Act of Vienna of 9 June 1815. Special provisions were dedicated to the Rhine in order to unify tax perception and to create this new Commission. It was based in Mayence and six states were its members (France, Netherlands, Prussia, Nassau, Hesse-Darmstadt and the country of Bade). Its role was to edict regulations regarding taxation for the navigation on the Rhine. Each state had to put in place a national judge in case of litigation, and the Commission could only be seized in appeal. Moreover, the Commission was mostly a place of communication between the states. This was the birth of the first international organization and the commissaries were in fact the first international officials. However, the Commission quickly became paralysed because the Prussian commissary never came starting from 1820 because of political dissent. After a few decades, it was time for the Commission to renew itself through its first reform. It was the case with the Act of Mayence of 31 March 1831. Resolutions enacted by the Commission became mandatory for the States once their consent collected through their commissaries. Many police regulations were also adopted. The Act of Mayence also planned a minimum of two reunions per year which was overridden only during war time from 1866 to 1870. After the war, participant states were modified since France no longer possessed the territories where flowed the Rhine. However, this modification was preceded by another reform of the Commission with the Act of Manheim of 17 October 1868 which is still in force today. It moved the Commission to Manheim and suppressed the chief inspector which implied that complaints could directly be addressed to the Commission. The counterpart was that they quickly became too numerous and the Commission often argued that national recourse was not extinguished. Eventually, it can be said that the Commission had a judicial power and its own case law. In 1868 also navigation taxes were abolished. The Commission thus lost its tax jurisdiction. It prefigured the living organization which can adapt to its environment through time. During the 20th century, the Commission reached its maturity. The end of the First World War changed things, with the reintegration of France which took back Alsace and Moselle. France being a winner of the war, it took an ascendant on the Commission changing its political dynamic. France required the demilitarization of Rhenian territories in the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919. France also moved the official headquarters to Strasbourg and took the presidency of the Commission. The Treaty of Versailles also saw newcomers such as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland. The Netherlands, which was not a party to this treaty, later signed a protocol on 21 January 1921. The whole dimension of the Commission changed from six commissaries to a conference of twenty people accompanied by their technicians and secretaries. It helped it to take more independence from national governments. Little by little, the Commission started to connect with new international organizations such as the League of Nations, the Permanent International Association for Navigation Congress or the High Commission for interallied territories of the Rhine. These links, which stand out of the traditional diplomatic frame, are totally new and initiated a movement that will substantially develop later: international networks of administrations outside of interstate relations. Today, the Commission has created a special link with the European Union. An agreement of 1961 allowed European commissioners to assist to the reunions of the Central Commission. Since the 1990s, a new question arose related to the relations of the Rhine with other rivers. In reality, the principles and the rules of the Commission scattered in the rest of Europe participating in the creation of a common market where the liberty of navigation is protected. This is another testimony of the spectacular capacity of adaptation of the Commission.