On 8 May 1948, the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau draws attention to the efforts made by the Western European countries to establish European economic cooperation and considers how Germany might be included.
On 13 February 1949, while discussing the ideas of the Belgian financier, Fernand Collin, the Brussels weekly newspaper Le Phare Dimanche calls for European financial and economic reconstruction, drawing on help from the United States.
In April 1949, Dutch economist Ed van Cleeff drafts a note in which he describes the stages required for the establishment of European economic cooperation.
In this film, largely based on family audio-visual archives, director Delphine Kiefer considers the professional experience of the Luxembourger Tony Rollman in the context of the economic reconstruction of Western Europe after the Second World War. A former Arbed employee, Rollman initially worked at the Luxembourg Ministry of Food Supply before becoming a delegate of the Luxembourg Government during Marshall Plan negotiations in 1947. That same year, he became Director in Geneva of the Steel Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In 1950, he was involved in drawing up the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In October 1952, Rollman joined the High Authority of the ECSC as Director of the Steel Division and remained there until his retirement in 1964.