On 10 December 1951, Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, addresses the Assembly of the Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg, exhorting it to support the establishment of a politically united Europe.

On 10 December 1951 the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Schuman, spoke before the Assembly of the Council of Europe meeting at Strasbourg, exhorting it to encourage the constitution of a politically united Europe.

Thanks to Alcide De Gasperi’s personal insistence, Article 38 of the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC) refers to the setting up of a European federation or confederation.

On 30 May 1952, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe passes a resolution calling for the creation of a European Political Community (EPC).

At a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Six on 25 June 1952, the French Government proposes to its partners in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) that a European Political Community (EPC) be established.

On 9 July 1952, responding positively to an invitation from the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe to the Six, the French Government proposes to its fellow Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) that a European Political Community (EPC) be established.

On 13 September 1952, the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) adopts a resolution supporting the initiative of the Special Council of Ministers to commission a study on a draft for a European Political Community (EPC).

On 11 December 1952, referring to the plan for a European Political Community (EPC), Johan Willem Beyen, Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs, sends his European colleagues a memorandum in which he proposes the establishment of a tariff community that would lead to the gradual abolition of all customs duties on imports and to the introduction of a common external tariff.

In his Memoirs, Alfred Müller-Armack, former Chief Adviser to Ludwig Erhard at the German Ministry of Finance, recalls the negotiations held in 1953 on the establishment of a European Political Community.

On 20 January 1953, in the French daily newspaper Le Monde, Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the Paneuropean Union and the European Parliamentary Union, considers the pros and cons of a European political federation.

On 14 February 1953, Jan Willem Beyen, Netherlands Foreign Minister, outlines to his counterparts from the Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) the proposals of the Netherlands Government regarding economic and political cooperation among the Six which are to form the basis of the May 1955 Benelux memorandum on the revival of European integration.

On 6 March 1953, the Portuguese President, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, forwards to Portugal’s Embassies and Legations a circular in which he sets outs Portugal’s position as regards European policy.

Writing in La Voix Fédéraliste in spring 1953, Dr J. Spaey, a member of the executive committee of the Belgian Section of the European Movement, wonders what form the European Political Community will take.

On 2 November 1953, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool analyses the progress of the negotiations on the establishment of a European Political Community and sets out the position adopted by the Netherlands Government.

On 25 November 1953, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro ponders on the form that a future European Political Community (EPC) might take and on the powers that it might wield.

On 14 June 1954, the European Union of Federalists (EUF) publishes a memorandum which calls for the establishment of a European Political Community (EPC), should the Treaty on the European Defence Community (EDC) be ratified by the French and Italian Parliaments.

On 1 and 2 October 1954, the Congress of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions (Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen, NVV) is held. At the Congress, Geert Johannes Nicolaas Maria Ruygers, deputy leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) and a Dutch Member of Parliament, gives an address on the issues surrounding the political and economic integration of Western Europe and particularly refers to the failure of the European Defence Community (EDC).

On 10 September 1952, the Special Council of Ministers of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) decides to establish an Ad Hoc Assembly responsible for the drafting of a European Political Community (EPC) Treaty within a period of six months.

On 23 October 1952, the six Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community submit a series of questions to the ad hoc Assembly concerning the establishment of a European Political Community.

On 10 September 1952, the Council of Ministers of the European Coal and Steel Community approves the establishment of an Ad Hoc Assembly, whose mission is to draw up a draft Treaty for a European Political Community.

In September 1952, the German delegate, Heinrich von Brentano, becomes the President of the Constitutional Committee of the Ad Hoc Assembly of the Consultative Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

Maurice Lemaire (on the left) and Guy Mollet (on the right) speaking outside the meeting-room of the Ad Hoc Assembly on 7 January 1953.

On 10 January 1953, Jean Monnet (left), President of the ECSC High Authority, and Lord Layton (right), British observer, hold talks on the margins of a meeting of the ad hoc Assembly for a European Political Community (EPC).

In November 1952, the Study Committee for the European Constitution, set up by the European movement and chaired by Paul-Henri Spaak, draws up an institutional proposal consisting of nine resolutions.

On 6 January 1953, Jean Monnet sends Robert Schuman and Paul-Henri Spaak a letter in which he outlines his vision of the European Political Community (EPC).

On 9 January 1953, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique outlines the work carried out by the Ad Hoc Assembly instructed by the governments of the Six in September 1952 to draw up the draft statute of a European political authority.

On 13 January 1953, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk comments on the negotiations for the establishment of a European Political Community, two months before the adoption of the Draft Treaty embodying the Statute of the European Community on 10 March 1953 by the Ad Hoc Assembly in Strasbourg.

On 4 February 1953, the Dutch journal Internationale Spectator comments on the structures of the future European Political Community and compares the situation with the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

On 19 February 1953, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk analyses the discussions between the Six on a European Political Community.

On 10 March 1953, the Ad Hoc Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) considers the final articles in the draft Treaty establishing the European Political Community (EPC) and takes a roll call vote on the draft treaty and the draft annexed protocols as a whole.

Draft Treaty embodying the Statute of the European Community adopted by the Ad Hoc Assembly, in Strasbourg on 10 March 1953.

On 9 March 1953, in Strasbourg, Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Ad Hoc Assembly (with his back to the camera, first from the right), hands over to Georges Bidault (standing), President of the ECSC Special Council of Ministers, the draft European Political Community (EPC) Treaty, in the presence of Joseph Bech (facing the camera, first from the left), Alcide De Gasperi (second from the left), Paul van Zeeland (second from the right) and Konrad Adenauer (first from the right).

On 9 March 1953, during a formal sitting at the Maison de l’Europe in Strasbourg, Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Ad Hoc Assembly, officially hands over the draft Treaty establishing the European Political Community to the Foreign Ministers of the Six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 9 March 1953, Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Ad Hoc Assembly, hands to Georges Bidault, President of the Special Council of Ministers, the draft Treaty establishing the European Political Community. During the ceremony, Georges Bidault gives an address in which he emphasises the importance of European integration.

On 10 March 1953, the day after the official handing over of the draft Treaty of the European Political Community (EPC) to the Foreign Ministers of the Six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Lord John Hope, British representative to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and observer at the Ad Hoc Assembly, reaffirms Great Britain’s commitment to Europe.

On 13 March 1953, shortly after the adoption of the Draft Treaty embodying the Statute of the European Community by the Ad Hoc Assembly in Strasbourg, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk reports on the scope of the event.

On 24 June 1953, at the end of the Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the Six held in Baden-Baden, Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the ad hoc Assembly, and Heinrich von Brentano, Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, give Alcide de Gasperi, President of the Special Council of Ministers of the ECSC, a progress report on the work being undertaken in preparation for the planned European Political Community (EPC).

Diagram showing the functioning of the European Political Community according to the draft Treaty embodying the Statute of the European Community of 9 March 1953.

On 22 April 1953, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel considers the ways in which a European Constitution may be made compatible with the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

In April 1953, Fernand Dehousse, Belgian representative to the Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community and to the ad hoc Assembly, comments in the monthly magazine Europe Unie on the work of the Constitutional Commission and the ad hoc Assembly.

On 31 August 1954, the day after the French National Assembly refused to ratify the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC), the Dutch daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk criticises the shelving of plans for a European political community.

On 31 August 1954, the French National Assembly refuses to ratify the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC) which results in the abandonment of the European Political Community (EPC) project. In 1968, the federalist journalist, Jean-Pierre Gouzy, tries to understand the reasons for this failure.