ECSC

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Created by
Emma D

Cards (5)

  • ECSC = The European Coal and Steel Community
  • The ECSC was the brainchild of French foreign minister Robert Schumann. He envisaged a free market in coal and steel as a precursor to greater economic integration. He wanted to place key areas of German industry under international supervision and to help Europe recover economically from WW2. If essential industries merged - coal accounted for 70% of fuel consumption across the member states, for example - they could plan and develop together, sharing ideas and trading freely.
  • The members were:
    • FRG
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Luxembourg
    • Netherlands
  • A supranational body, the High Authority, was set up and tasked with the running of the coal and steel industries of the 5 members.
  • The ECSC was successful in many respects, acting as a treaty of friendship between France and the FRG and offering a route to closer co-operation with the formation of the EEC. It was also successful in its own terms - trade in coal increased 10 times among its members. Furthermore, it fulfilled an important welfare function, providing more than 110000 apartments for workers in coal and steel industries and occupational redeployment schemes for coal and steel workers made redundant from working in uneconomic mines.