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.
Jean Monnet (on the left), first President of the ECSC High Authority, and Joseph Bech (on the right), Luxembourg Foreign Minister, on the steps leading to Luxembourg City Hall, where the inaugural meeting of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is held on 10 August 1952.
In an article published in September 1979 in the Revue du Marché commun, Pascal Fontaine, lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, gives an account of the events which led Jean Monnet, at that time Chairman of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, to propose, from 1973, to the Heads of State and Government of the Community Member States that they should meet regularly in the form of a ‘provisional European government' in order to give new impetus to European unification.
Jean Monnet, chargé en tant que Président de la Haute Autorité de la CECA de convoquer la première session de l'Assemblée commune, adresse le 5 septembre 1952 une lettre circulaire aux délégués de l'assemblée. Il leur annonce les décisions prises pour assurer le bon fonctionnement de cette première session, dont l'organisation du Secrétariat provisoire, de même que l'ordre du jour prévu par le Traité: l'élection du Président et du Bureau et l'élaboration du Règlement intérieur.
In this interview granted to RTL radio journalists in Paris on 22 January 1972, Jean Monnet discusses his career and outlines the evolution of his commitment to Europe, which began in the interwar period.
On 4 December 1952, the French daily newspaper Le Monde highlights the implications of the introduction of the first European tax, planned for 1 January 1953, by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
