‘Rational Europe — I'm putting coal next to steel, coffee next to milk, wine next to cheese, sugar next to barley …' On 14 December 1951, in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, the cartoonist, Sennep, takes an ironic look at the accumulation of plans, more or less theoretical, for European economic integration in the wake of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) launched by Robert Schuman (left), French Foreign Minister, and the plan for a European Defence Community (EDC) launched in 1950 by René Pleven (right), President of the French Council of Ministers.