Film based on newsreels telling the history of the Treaty of Paris (French versionb with shotlist in English). This film illustrates the Schuman declaration (09/05/1950), the signatures of the Treaty of Paris, the High Authority, the Court of Justice and the Assembly of the ECSC, coal mining and steel industry across Europe.

Strasbourg

Paris

Luxembourg

SCHUMAN, Robert (CD, FR)

MONNET, Jean (FR)

Common Assembly of the ECSC

High Authority of Coal and Steel

Memoclip: "History of a Treaty"

In six European countries, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands,

the coal and steel industries are nowadays linked by a solidarity of production and work.

In six capitals, a great political design has taken shape: that of achieving European unity by peaceful means.

The European Coal and Steel Community is the first concrete achievement in the march towards the United States of Europe.

The history of this Community began on May 9, 1950 with a surprising proposal.

&ldquo;In taking upon herself for more than 20 years the role of champion of a united Europe,

France has always had as her essential aim the service of peace.

A united Europe was not achieved, and we had war. Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan.

It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.&rdquo;

That is why, Mr. Schuman continues, the French government proposes to immediately take action on a limited but decisive point:

it proposes to place all Franco-German production of coal and steel under a high common authority,

in an organization open to the participation of other countries.

The coal and steel production will immediately ensure the establishment of common bases of economic production,

the first step in the European Federation.

War between France and Germany will become not only unthinkable, but materially impossible.

This truly revolutionary proposal immediately vibrates across Europe.

The governments of Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg respond to the French call at once.

Two months later they meet in Paris to work out a draft treaty.

And ten months later, at the Quai d'Orsay, the six powers sign the Treaty.

By a large majority the parliaments of the six signatory countries establish the Treaty.

Ten months later, at the Quai d'Orsay, the six powers sign, and on behaf of the people, entrust powers to an independent Authority.

The first European institution was born. The news of the enactment spread throughout the world.

Indeed, for the first time in the history of Europe, populations once divided, agreed to submit to common rules.

Great hope had just been born. This new solidarity of production and work between six nations of Europe

was to be the start of a community of more than 150 million people.

The city of Luxembourg was chosen by the participating States as the seat of the new institutions.

It is in this peaceful location that decisions which concern each of us are taken.

&ldquo;The task entrusted to us by the Treaty is heavy.

We must create and maintain a single market for coal and steel throughout the territory of the Community.&rdquo;

It is a question, continues Mr. Monnet, of this natural basin which men have arbitrarily divided and limited development.

This basin, based on density mineral resources and its industrial facilities, is unique in the world.

&ldquo;We are only at the beginning of the effort which Europe must accomplish

in order finally to achieve unity, prosperity and peace.&rdquo;

The institutions of the new Europe take off.

The High Authority is an executive composed of nine members. Jean Monnet was the president, followed by Ren&eacute; Mayer..

The Common Assembly gathered here in Strasbourg controls the action of the High Authority.

On behalf of the parliaments which elected it, it guarantees the democratic character of the Community.

It can, by its vote, overthrow the High Authority,

The Court of Justice, a veritable supreme court, ensures compliance with the Treaty against all abuse of power.

No important decision can be taken by the High Authority without prior authorization from the Consultative Committee,

bringing together producers, consumers and workers. Workers are closely associated with Community action.

The Council of Ministers is the liaison body between the High Authority and the governments.

Its meetings make it possible to harmonize Community action and the economic policy of the Member States.

All these institutions ensure a permanent exchange of opinions and interests for all. A new spirit reigns: the European spirit.

Ever since the creation of the High Authority, the United States and Great Britain sent diplomatic representations to it.

Soon England would do more and sign an Association Treaty,

At the same time, the list of countries represented in Luxembourg was growing: Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway,

Austria and Japan also sent delegations. The Community is not inward-looking. It is open to the world.

These are familiar images of a fragmented, divided Europe, bristling with barriers,

in a few months the Community eliminates them for coal and steel. The establishment of a European passport symbolizes a new Europe without borders.

On February 10, 1953, a first European coal train, followed three months later by a first steel train, freely crossed the abolished borders.

The common market for coal and steel was becoming a reality. New trade flows were now to be established across Europe.

Jean Monnet: &ldquo;All of us, German, Belgian, French, Dutch, Italian and Luxembourgers are becoming European.

There will no longer be German coal or French steel, but European coal and steel circulating between our countries freely as in the same country of 155 million consumers, 

as numerous as in the United States and in Soviet Union.&rdquo;

This new Europe has firmly proved its usefulness.

It helps companies promote a vast program of modernization and social progress:

Its impact can be felt in people's everyday lives.

the improvement of workers' living conditions, retraining when necessary, and a plan for the construction of workers' homes.

Coal and steel trade has doubled. Billions of savings have been made in transportation, production has grown immensely,

making it possible to keep prices at their lowest levels ever.

So: economic expansion, consumer interest and the preservation of peace go hand in hand.

What is working for coal and steel must be pursued to the end: the United States of Europe.

The unity of the European people is the great hope and challenge of our time.