Group photograph taken at the signing of the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. From left to right: Paul van Zeeland (B), Joseph Bech (L), Joseph Meurice (B), Carlo Sforza (I), Robert Schuman (F), Konrad Adenauer (BRD), Dirk Stikker (NL) and Johannes van den Brink (NL).

On 18 April 1951, in Paris, Konrad Adenauer (Federal Republic of Germany), Paul Van Zeeland and Joseph Meurice (Belgium), Robert Schuman (France), Carlo Sforza (Italy), Joseph Bech (Luxembourg) and Dirk Stikker and Johannes van den Brink (Netherlands) sign the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is signed on 18 April 1951 in Paris and enters into force on 23 July 1952. This Treaty is concluded for a period of 50 years from the date of its entry into force.

Dans ses Mémoires, Jean Monnet évoque l'épisode de la signature, le 18 avril 1951 à Paris, du Traité instituant la Communauté européenne du charbon et de l'acier (CECA).

Jean Monnet recalls the beginnings of the ECSC, with its common institutions and its desire to be an open Community.

Jean Monnet, President of the ECSC High Authority, makes a statement at the press conference held in Luxembourg on 9 February 1953 at the opening of the transitional period leading to a common market in coal and steel.

On 10 February 1953, the first trainload of German coal crosses the French frontier without having to pay the traditional customs duties. This event marks the opening of the transitional period prior to the establishment of a common market in coal and steel and is welcomed in a statement made by Jean Monnet, President of the ECSC.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Principal Private Secretary (from 1952 to 1956) to Jean Monnet and then to René Mayer during their respective Presidencies of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, discusses the establishment of the first European tax in December 1952 and the implementation of the common market for coal and steel in Europe from 1953.

On 12 May 1955, Franz Etzel, the German Vice-President of the High Authority, reviews the progress of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) five years on from the Schuman Declaration and calls for greater economic integration.

In March 1954, Paolo Emilio Taviani, Italian Defence Minister, summarises the first five years of operation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and emphasises its economic and social benefits for Italy.

On 14 May 1957, having presented to the Common Assembly the activity report of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), René Mayer, President of the High Authority of the ECSC, outlines to Jacques Navadic, a journalist working for RTL Luxembourg, the political lesson to be learned from the ECSC’s first four years of operation.

On 9 May 1970, while reporting on the 20th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the French daily newspaper Le Monde outlines the successes and failures of the activities of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).