European Coal and Steel Community

 

(ECSC), 1st treaty organization of what has become the European Union; established by the Treaty of Paris (1952). It is also known as the Schuman Plan, after the French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, who proposed it in 1950. Member nations of ECSC pledged to pool their coal and steel resources by providing a unified market for their coal and steel products, lifting restrictions on imports and exports, and creating a unified labor market. Economically, the Coal and Steel Community achieved early success; between 1952 and 1960 iron and steel production rose by 75% in the ECSC nations, and industrial production rose 58%. When overproduction of coal became a problem after 1959, especially in Belgium, the ECSC demonstrated its flexibility by reducing Belgium's coal-producing capacity by 30% and by making available large sums of money to aid in retraining miners and developing new industries. The ECSC had, by 1970, granted about $150 million in aid to retrain over 400,000 coal miners. The executive machinery of the ECSC provided an important precedent for the future growth of a united Europe: the nine-member High Authority, which became a part of the European Commission in 1967, was chosen by the member governments and made independent of those governments. Its independence was guaranteed by providing the authority with its own source of income.

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The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was founded by the Treaty of Paris (1951). Its members were France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands who pooled their steel and coal resources and create a common market for those products.

It was the fulfillment of a plan developed by French economist Jean Monnet, publicised by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman. It was also strongly supported by the United States.

History

Further information: History of the European Union

The Treaty of Paris entered into force on 23 July 1952, and unlike the Treaty establishing the European Community, provided for a limited duration of only 50 years. Thus, the Treaty of Paris ceased to exist on 23 July 2002, and its responsibilities and assets (excepting research funds, see below) were then assumed by the EC. (This assumption was provided for by a protocol to the Treaty of Nice, but as Member States failed to ratify the Treaty in time, a separate Council Decision (2002/596/EC) with provisions for the end of the ECSC was passed. Once the Treaty of Nice had been ratified, this decision was superseded by Council Decision 2003/76/EC.)

Steel had played an important part in arms production in World War II and was a fundamental resource of the western European states. The aim was therefore a common program of post-war production and consumption of steel and coal. The project was also intended to show some cooperation and reconciliation between France and Germany in the aftermath of the war. There was a desire to unite the countries by controlling steel and coal which were fundamental to war industries.

The ECSC introduced a common free steel and coal market, with freely set market prices, and without import/export duties or subsidies. However, a transition period allowed the different economies to reach this situation over about one year.

A High Authority of the ECSC, consisting of nine members, sat in Luxembourg until 1967. It was originally presided over by French prominent euro-federalist Jean Monnet, who hoped European institutions such as the ECSC would eventually constitute supra-national organisations, above the sovereignty of individual European states. The High Authority in 1967 joined with the commissions of the EEC and Euratom to constitute a single multi-purpose commission. The ECSC also included a council of ministers, an assembly, and a court of arbitration.

The ECSC served as the foundation for the later development of the European Economic Community (later renamed the European Community by the Maastricht Treaty), and then the European Union.

Not all ECSC activity ceased after July 2002. The Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) continued in existence, since its funds had been sourced from industry and could not be redistributed to member States. The RFCS is supported by invested capital of €1.6 Billion, which was originally levied from the European coal and steel industries to support training, research and restructuring. The investment provides recurrent funds of about €55-60 Million per year. The RFCS funds and allocations are administered by Unit 5 of Direction G (Technologies Industrielles) of DG Research, a Directorate-General within the European Commission. The deployment of the RFCS is overseen by the Coal & Steel Committee (COSCO), the members of which are national representatives. By Council decision, the recurrent funds are partitioned at 27.2% to coal research and 72.8% to steel research.

Political Background

After World War II, under the Monnet Plan, France - intent on ensuring that Germany would never again have the strength to threaten it - had attempted to gain economic control of the remaining German industrial areas with large coal and mineral deposits; the Rhineland, the Ruhr area and the Saar area (Germany's second largest center of mining and industry, Upper Silesia, had by the Allies been handed over to Poland for occupation at the Potsdam conference and the German population was being forcibly expelled) (see also French proposal regarding the detachment of German industrial regions September 8, 1945). French attempts to gain political control of or permanently internationalize the Ruhr area (see International Authority for the Ruhr ) were abandoned in 1951 with the West German agreement to pool its coal and steel resources in return for full political control over the Ruhr. With French economic security guaranteed through access to Ruhr coal now permanently ensured France was satisfied. The French attempt to gain economic control over the Saar was temporarily even more successful.

In the bon speech Restatement of Policy on Germany, held in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946, the United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the U.S. motive in detaching the Saar from Germany as "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory" (see also Morgenthau plan for U.S. and UK designs for the Ruhr and Saar area). The Saarland came under French administration in 1947 as the Saar protectorate, but did following a referendum return to Germany in January 1957, with economic reintegration with Germany occurring a few years later.

In the years 1945 - 1951 a policy of industrial disarmament, set in motion at the Potsdam conference, was pursued in West Germany by the Allies (see The industrial plans for Germany). As part of this policy limits were placed on allowed production levels, and heavy industries, mainly steelworks and machine-plants, which might contribute to economic and war potential were dismantled. Although not a party to the Potsdam conference, as a member of the Allied Control Council France came to champion this policy since it ensured a weak Germany. (see also the 1949 letter from the UK Foreign minister Ernest Bevin to the French Foreign minister Robert Schuman, urging a reconsideration of the dismantling policy).

In view of increased concerns by General Lucius D. Clay and the Joint Chief of Staff over communist influence in Germany, as well as of the failure of the rest of the European economy to recover without the German industrial base on which it was dependent, in the summer of 1947 Secretary of State General George Marshall, citing "national security grounds" had finally been able to convince President Harry S. Truman to remove the punitive U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067, and replace it with JCS 1779.^[1] JCS 1067 had directed the U.S. forces of occupation in Germany to "…take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany", it was replaced by JCS 1779 which instead stressed that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." ^[2] In time the U.S. also came to the conclusion that West Germany should be, carefully, rearmed as a resource in the cold war. In 31 August 1954 the French parliament voted down the treaty that would have established the European Defense Community, a treaty they themselves had proposed in 1950 as a means to contain German revival. The U.S. who wanted to rearm West Germany was furious at the failure of the treaty, but France had come to see the alliance as not in their best interests.

France had instead focused on another treaty also under development. In may 1950 France had proposed the Coal and Steel union, with the purpose of ensuring French economic security by perpetuating access to German Ruhr coal, but also to show to the U.S. and the UK that France could come up with constructive solutions, as well as to pacify Germany by making it part of an international project.

Germany was eventually allowed to rearm, but under the auspices of the Western European Union, and later NATO.

Presidents of the High Authority

The nine-member executive was led by 5 Presidents. Shortly before the Merger Treaty in 1967, there was a further interim president.

• Jean Monnet (France) 1952-1955 - Monnet Authority
• René Mayer (France) 1955-1958 - Mayer Authority
• Paul Finet (Belgium) 1958-1959 - Finet Authority
• Piero Malvestiti (Italy) 1959-1963 - Malvestiti Authority
• Rinaldo Del Bo (Italy) 1963-1967 - Del Bo Authority
• Albert Coppé (Belgium) interim - Coppé Authority

Timeline

Evolution of the Structures of European Union

See also

• History of the European Union
• Schuman Declaration
• Energy policy of the European Union
• The Monnet Plan of 1945 - 1947
• The industrial plans for Germany

Further Reading

• Grin, Gilles (2003). The Battle of the Single European Market: Achievements and Economic Thought, 1945-2000. Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0710309389. 
• Hitchcock, William I. (1998). France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4747-X. 
• Maas, Willem (2007). Creating European Citizens. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-5485-6. 

References

External links

• [rtsp://rtsppress.cec.eu.int/Archive/video/mpeg/i000679/i000679.rm Common Destiny] - A period film explaining the Coal and Steel Community
• Treaty constituting the European Coal and Steel Community European NAvigator
• The institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community European NAvigator
• EU Founders
• France, Germany and the Struggle for the War-making Natural Resources of the Rhineland
• Pas de Pagaille! Time Magazine article from Jul. 28, 1947.
• Ruhr Delegation of the United States of America, Council of Foreign Ministers American Embassy Moscow, March 24, 1947

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