On 3 November 1970, at the joint meeting between the Council of Western European Union (WEU) and the Assembly Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments, the delegations discuss a reply given by the Council to a question on the strategic arms limitation talks. While the Council is not contemplating French and British participation in the negotiations on strategic arms limitation, which are being held between the United States and the Soviet Union, British and French MPs James Scott and André Beauguitte believe that their countries should take part in the SALT talks once they begin to focus on reducing ceilings of strategic offensive nuclear weapons.

As the future President of the ECSC High Authority, Jean Monnet is responsible for convening the first session of the Common Assembly. In a letter to Jacques Camille Paris, dated 1 August 1952, he expresses an interest in the facilities which the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe is willing to offer him, for the holding of the first session on the premises of the Consultative Assembly in Strasbourg. At the same time, he indicates his desire to maintain in full the independence and the inherent character of the new institution.

With a view to enabling the ECSC Common Assembly to begin its work independently, Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority, informs Jacques Camille Paris, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, on 15 August 1952, of his decision to set up a temporary Preparatory Committee, consisting of officials from the national parliaments of the six Member States of the Community, to be responsible for organising the first session of the Assembly in Strasbourg.

On 27 September 1962, in Brussels, the 10th joint meeting is held between the Council of Western European Union (WEU) and the Assembly Committee on Defence Questions. The questions focus on the debate concerning the possibility and legitimacy of establishing a future political union. On the matter of the future reorganisation of Western defence, this depends on the type of political union that might be created. The chairman also notes that the Council is not able to form an opinion on this question since it is under constant development.

In a letter dated 14 August 1952, Jacques Camille Paris, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, sends to Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the ECSC, a list of the services which the Secretariat-General of the Council of Europe can provide for the Common Assembly of the ECSC, on the occasion of its inaugural session on 10 September in Strasbourg.

On the 30th anniversary of the first direct elections to the European Parliament in June 1979, the European Parliament’s Archive and Documentation Centre (CARDOC) produces a paper on the initiatives taken by the European Parliament, and previously by the ECSC Common Assembly, to arrive at the first direct elections to Parliament.

Photo showing the Presidents of the four institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), taken in Luxembourg on 8 February 1955. From left to right: Emilio Battista, President-in-Office of the Special Council of Ministers, Giuseppe Pella, President of the Common Assembly, Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority, and Massimo Pilotti, President of the Court of Justice.

Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (right), and Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the ECSC (left), in Strasbourg in January 1953.

Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (left), and Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) (right), during the inaugural session of the Common Assembly of the ECSC held on 10 September 1952 in Strasbourg.

On 6 March 1999, the French daily newspaper Le Monde publishes an article by Jean-François Hervieu, President of the Permanent Assembly of Chambers of Agriculture in France, in which he deplores the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP).