On 19 December 1955, the Frenchman Bertrand Goldschmidt, Head of the French Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Chairman of the working party responsible for studying the problems involved in establishing a European factory for separating uranium isotopes, created by the Intergovernmental Committee which was set up by the Messina Conference, submits a memorandum to the experts from the six Member States in which he insists on the need to have the preliminary studies undertaken at an early date so that the Six may acquire supplies of enriched uranium.