EU
Beginings
lTwo Frenchmen — Jean Monnet, a civil servant, and Robert Schuman, a foreign minister — believed that France and Germany might put aside their long-running antagonism if given economic incentives for cooperation.
–In May 1950 Schuman proposed the creation of a common authority to regulate the coal and steel industry in West Germany and France; membership was also open to other Western European countries.
–The proposal was welcomed
by the West German government
and by the governments of Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
–Along with France, the
five countries signed the Treaty
of Paris in 1951, and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established in August 1952.
–The British government
decided not to join.
