European Coal and Steel Community

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:EGKS.png The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was founded in 1951 (Treaty of Paris), by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to pool the steel and coal resources of its member-states.

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

1 History
2 Presidents of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, 1952-1967
3 Timeline
4 See also
5 External links

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History

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. Therefore the ECSC ceased to exist in 23 July 2002, and its responsibilities and assets 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 Once the Treaty of Nice had been ratified, this decision was superseded by Council Decision 2003/76/EC.)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 Two and was a fundamental resource of the western European states. The aim was therfore a common program of post-war production and consunption 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.

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