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.

In this interview, Henri Rieben, President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe (Lausanne), recalls the establishment of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe (ACUSE) of which he was, from 1955, the first Administrative Secretary.

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.

Interview with José María Gil-Robles y Gil-Delgado, Secretary-General of the Spanish Christian Democracy party in 1977, Vice-President of the Humanism and Democracy Foundation and Spanish partner of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1985 to 2003, Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 2004, President of the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement from 1996 to 2001, President of the European Parliament from 1997 to 1999, President of the European Movement International from 1999 to 2005 and President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in Lausanne since 2008, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 9 March 2010 in Madrid. The interview was conducted by Cristina Blanco Sío-López, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the relationship between the democratic transition and Spain’s accession to the European Communities, Euro-Mediterranean policy and immigration policy, the introduction of the euro in Spain, the principle of solidarity and the plan for a European Constitution, European cultural heritage and the fundamental elements of a common European identity, Spain’s role in relations between Latin America and the European Union, the role of Spanish regions in the European integration process, Spain’s contributions to European integration and the personal significance for him of Europe.

In this interview, José María Gil-Robles, President of the Jean Monnet Foundation since 2008, emphasises the support shown by European political parties for the democratic transition in Spain, and the importance of the country’s accession to the Council of Europe as a necessary precedent for accession to the European Communities.

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.

In this interview, the former French journalist, Paul Collowald, who joined the Joint Press and Information Service of the European Communities in Luxembourg in April 1958, describes the nature of his role, in particular among young people, in university and educational circles and with the press and European trade unions.

In this interview, Paul Collowald, called to Brussels in 1959 by Robert Marjolin, Vice-President of the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC), in order to participate in the establishment of his Press Service, describes the opinion of Marjolin, former Secretary-General of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), on the role of the European Communities.

Interview with Georges Berthoin, Head of the Private Office of Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1952 to 1955, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the ECSC and Chargé d'Affaires to the United Kingdom from 1956 to 1958, Deputy Chief Representative, from 1959 to 1970, and Chief Representative, from 1970 to 1973, of the Commission of the European Economic Community in the United Kingdom, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 22 July 2005 at Georges Berthoin’s home in Paris. The interview was conducted by Étienne Deschamps, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the early days of the ECSC High Authority, the High Authority’s relations with European industry and trade unions, the Association Agreement between the High Authority and the United Kingdom, the two failed British applications for accession to the Communities in 1963 and 1967, the empty chair crisis and the Luxembourg Compromise and the United Kingdom’s accession to the Communities in 1973.

In this film, largely based on family audio-visual archives, director Delphine Kiefer considers the professional experience of the Luxembourger Tony Rollman in the context of the economic reconstruction of Western Europe after the Second World War. A former Arbed employee, Rollman initially worked at the Luxembourg Ministry of Food Supply before becoming a delegate of the Luxembourg Government during Marshall Plan negotiations in 1947. That same year, he became Director in Geneva of the Steel Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In 1950, he was involved in drawing up the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In October 1952, Rollman joined the High Authority of the ECSC as Director of the Steel Division and remained there until his retirement in 1964.