On 18 March 1957, René Mayer, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), forwards a series of observations to Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and President of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, on the institutions and the possible impact of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), with particular regard to the operation of the common market in coal and steel and the coordination of energy policy in Europe.

Extract from a contribution by Jacques Santer, former President of the European Commission, to a joint publication produced by the European Commission in 2002 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The extract, entitled ‘The High Authority of the Coal and Steel Community and the “institutional question”’, focuses on the role of the Commission as representative of both the Community interest and the Community method.

On 18 May 1961, as debates are held on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the Europe of Six, the Secretary-General of Western European Union (WEU) circulates a draft reply by the British delegation to Assembly Recommendation 54 on the association of Great Britain with the energy policy of the Six. The document notes that the British Government already cooperates with the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the Energy Working Party set up by the Council of Association’s Coal Committee. The Council emphasises that the development of a coordinated energy policy largely depends on the action taken on a potential application for accession by the United Kingdom to the European Communities. It also points out that an adequate supply of energy is one of the main bases of economic security.

On 8 September 1952, Jean Monnet, President of the ECSC High Authority, replies to the opening address delivered by the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who, as President of the ECSC Special Council of Ministers, inaugurates its first meeting.

On 10 August 1952, the day on which the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) takes up its duties in Luxembourg, Fernand Baudhuin, Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain, attempts to evaluate, in the columns of the Belgian daily newspaper La Libre Belgique, the consequences of Community policy for the coal and steel industry in Belgium.

Having been invited by Jean Monnet to visit the offices of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Luxembourg in 1955, Henri Rieben, Chairman of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe (Lausanne), discusses the mindset and determination of the first European civil servants.

On 17 November 1955, René Mayer, President of the High Authority, delivers the inaugural address of the ECSC-United Kingdom Association Council. Three permanent committees are subsequently established: coal, steel and trade relations.

In this interview, Jacques F. Poos, former Luxembourg Foreign Minister, recalls the objectives of the three-pillar structure of the Treaty of Maastricht on European Union and describes the limits set on Europe by the intergovernmental approach and the unanimity rule.

On 4 June 1956, the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and the French Prime Minister, Guy Mollet, meet in Luxembourg with a view to the drafting of the Franco–German Treaty on the Saar, which will be signed in Luxembourg City on 27 October 1956.

At the end of an interview granted to CVCE in April 2004, Jacques F. Poos, former Luxembourg Foreign Minister and MEP from 1999 to 2004, asserts that Luxembourg has played a positive role in European integration. In particular, he emphasises the economic and political development of a country which, were it not a Member State of the Union, would be dependent on decisions taken by more influential countries.