Robert Schuman holds the post of French Minister for Finance from 24 June 1946 to 24 November 1947.

From left to right: Robert Schuman, Foreign Minister, Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, Deputy Head of Robert Schuman’s Private Office, and Alexandre Parodi, General Secretary of the French Foreign Ministry.

‘Shh! Schuman is thinking “Europe”!’ In August 1949, referring to the first meeting of the Council of Europe, the French cartoonist, Pinatel, takes an ironic look at the thoughts of Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, on the need for a united Europe (in the background: Vincent Auriol, President of the French Republic).

In his memoirs, Georges Bidault, former French Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, praises the decisive political intervention made in 1950 by Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, in favour of the coal and steel pool.

Dans ses Mémoires, Jean Monnet rappelle la manière dont ont été averties les autorités politiques françaises du projet de Communauté européenne du charbon et de l'acier (CECA).

Robert Schuman holds the post of French Foreign Minister from 26 July 1948 to 8 January 1953.

Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister (on the left), and Jean Monnet, Commissioner-General of the French National Planning Board (on the right).

Spring 1950 in Houjarray, as preparations are made for the Schuman Plan. From left to right: Bernard Clappier, Head of the Private Office of Minister Robert Schuman; Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister; and Jean Monnet, Commissioner-General of the French National Planning Board.

Robert Schuman, the initiator of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

‘I am the United States of Europe. He is in favour of an absolute MONNErchy.’ The French cartoonist, Pinatel, illustrates the political endorsement by Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, of Jean Monnet’s plan for a European industrial pool (in the background: Vincent Auriol, President of the French Republic).

On 19 May 1950, the Swiss publication Sie und Er paints a glowing portrait of French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, who on 9 May 1950 invited Germany and other interested European states to place their coal and steel production under the control of a European supranational institution.

On 22 and 23 October 1953, inaugurating the Chair in his name for European economic issues, the former French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, gives a lecture to students at the College of Europe in Bruges in which he emphasises the objectives and philosophy of the Schuman Plan and particularly highlights the role played by Jean Monnet in the development and implementation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 10 and 11 May 1970, in an interview given to journalist Georges Suffert, Jean Monnet, former Commissioner-General of the French National Planning Board, describes how the French political authorities were informed of the plan for a coal and steel pool.

In this interview, Paul Collowald, former journalist on the daily newspaper Le Nouvel Alsacien and former European correspondent in Alsace for the daily newspaper Le Monde, describes the preparations for and the political and economic implications of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950.

In a work published in 2007 on Places of memory in Luxembourg, Cédric Sangaletti, a Researcher in European Studies at the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (Virtual Resource Centre for Knowledge About Europe — CVCE), describes the image that Luxembourg retains of Robert Schuman, who was both a child of the country and the father of Europe.