The Treaty of Paris, signed on 18 April 1951 by six countries, created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which placed coal and steel production under a common authority. It was the first European Community and the model for today's EU institutions. It expired in 2002.
- Official name
- Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community
- Signed
- 18 April 1951, Paris, France
- In force
- 23 July 1952
- Signatories
- 6 states
Five years after the Second World War, the French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed, on 9 May 1950, that France and Germany place their coal and steel production under a common authority, open to other European countries. Coal and steel were the basic materials of heavy industry and of armaments. The idea was that if no country controlled them alone, a new war between former enemies would become materially much harder.
Six countries took up the proposal: Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. They signed the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community in Paris on 18 April 1951. It entered into force on 23 July 1952.
What it changed
The treaty created a common market for coal and steel among the six, and gave real powers to a body independent of national governments. It set up four institutions and an advisory committee:
- a High Authority, the independent executive, which could take decisions binding on companies and states;
- a Common Assembly of members of national parliaments;
- a Council of Ministers representing national governments;
- a Court of Justice to settle disputes and make sure the treaty was respected.
This was new: for the first time, states transferred part of their sovereignty in an economic sector to a common authority, rather than simply cooperating.
Example
The four ECSC institutions are the ancestors of today’s EU institutions. The High Authority became the model for the European Commission, which replaced it in 1967 under the Merger Treaty. The Common Assembly developed into the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers into the Council of the EU, and the ECSC Court of Justice into the Court of Justice of the European Union, which dates its creation to 1952.
Debates and limits
Unlike the later treaties, the ECSC Treaty was concluded for a fixed period of 50 years. It expired as planned on 23 July 2002. Its scope was also narrow: two industrial sectors only. The six then chose to extend economic integration to the whole economy with the Treaties of Rome in 1957, rather than pursue similar communities sector by sector.