On 2 March 1951, Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, gives a lecture in the Salle Pleyel in Paris in which he places particular emphasis on the need for France to promote and participate in the efforts for economic and political unification in Western Europe.

On 2 July 1950, the Moselle metal trade unions adopt a resolution that describes the dangers of the Schuman Plan and calls for all workers to unite to fight against a plan described as ‘anti-French’ and ‘anti-worker’.

In 1950, Jean Constant, representative of French steel users, identifies the advantages of a common market in steel products in Europe.

On 28 December 1950, the French delegation for the Paris Conference on the Schuman Plan drafts a note refuting the main criticisms levelled at the plan for a European coal and steel pool by the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association.

On 21 November 1950, the French National Planning Board drafts a note emphasising the advantages for French coal mines of the establishment of a European common market in coal under the Schuman Plan.

In 1950, the leading French steel companies give their reactions to the plan for a common market in steel under the Schuman Plan.

On 12 July 1950, industrialist Jules Aubrun, Head of the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association, sends a note to French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman outlining the views of France’s leading iron and steel companies with regard to the economic and political issues surrounding the plan for a European coal and steel pool.

On 17 November 1950, Jean Monnet sends a letter to Jules Aubrun, head of the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association, in which he refutes the allegations made by Aubrun on the distance between the French steel industry and the current negotiations on the Schuman Plan.

On 2 April 1951, Albert Bureau, Director for the Iron and Steel Industry in the French Ministry of Industrial Production, drafts a note outlining the reasons why the development of the coal and steel industries in the Lorraine region as a counterbalance to the Ruhr basin is one of the political conditions for the success of the Schuman Plan.

On 9 September 1950, Pierre Uri, economic and financial adviser at the French National Planning Board, drafts a note for the meeting of the International Economic Association in Monaco in which he examines relations between the global economy and the common market in coal and steel that the Schuman Plan aims to establish in Europe.