Table displaying the votes cast during ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the National Assemblies of the Six.

In 1951, Pierre-Etienne Flandin, French politician and former President of the Council, analyses the economic and political aspects of the Schuman Plan and recounts his numerous reservations about the ratification of the Treaty establishing a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In 1951, Albert R. Métral, Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgists Association, considers the principles and the basic rules laid down by the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and calls for the French Parliament to reject the text.

En 1951, Louis Charvet, General Delegate of the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association, offers his opinion on the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and informs of his disappointment concerning the text that was negotiated.

In 1951, in connection with the debates on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Louis Lacoste, chief representative of the Metal Workers’ Association, outlines the dangers of the Schuman Plan for the French steel industry.

On 14 June 1951, the Metz weekly newspaper L’Avenir de l’Est leads with the numerous dangers of the Schuman Plan for the French coal and steel industries.

In July 1951, the bimonthly bulletin Actualités industrielles lorraines, published by the Centre d’Information des Industries Lorraines, analyses the repercussions of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on France’s steel and coal industries.

On 29 August 1951, Jean Monnet’s staff at the French National Planning Board identify the economic and political objectives of the Schuman Plan and outline the favourable effects in France of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on the steel and coal sectors, on the living and working conditions of workers and on the development of relations between the Six and industrialists in the Ruhr, the United Kingdom and the United States.

On 17 October 1951, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro highlights the historic importance of the Schuman Plan and emphasises the revolutionary aspects of the changes that will accompany the establishment of a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) for the national economies of the Six. The author notes, however, that the general public are unaware of the considerable upheavals that will occur.

On 23 October 1951, the Force Ouvrière National Federal Miners’ Council adopts a resolution opposing the application of the Schuman Plan and calls on French MPs to reject the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 19 November 1951, as the French Parliament debates the ratification of the Paris Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a pamphlet which harshly criticises the economic, political and social consequences of the Schuman Plan is distributed to MPs.

In December 1951, the French Economic Council rejects, by 73 votes out of 160, the contrary draft opinion delivered by the group of heads of enterprise and declares its support for the ratification of the Schuman Plan.

On 4 December 1951, Jacques Duclos, leader of the Communist group in the French National Assembly, sends a letter to the Central Works Council of the steel company Union sidérurgique du Nord de la France (Usinor), in which he sets out the reasons why the French Communist Party has decided to vote against the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and particularly emphasises the dangers of the Schuman Plan for France.

On 5 December 1951, the day before the debates are to be held in the French National Assembly on ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité criticises the foundations of the new European Treaty and calls for a stand to be made against implementation of the Schuman Plan.

In the 5 December 1951 edition of the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité, as debates are being held in France on ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the cartoonist Vincent Carrier draws attention to the dangers of the Schuman Plan and the risks presented by West German rearmament.

In December 1951, as parliamentary debates are opened on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the Permanent Commission of the National Council of the Peace Movement sends a letter to all the Members of the French National Assembly in which it outlines the harmful consequences of the Schuman Plan for French national interests and security.

On 6 December 1951, the French daily newspaper L’Aurore sets out the arguments of the supporters and opponents of the Schuman Plan as debates are opened in the French National Assembly on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 7 December 1951, as debates are held for the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité leads with the dangers of the coal and steel pool and calls on the French National Assembly to reject the text.

In December 1951, the Works Council (management included) of the Hauts-Fourneaux de Chasse in Isère sends a letter to the MPs from the Loire, Isère and Rhône départements to encourage them to vote against the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 11 December 1951, the French daily newspaper Le Monde considers the importance of a positive vote on the Schuman Plan by the National Assembly, both for France and for its place in the world.

On 13 December 1951, the French daily newspaper Le Monde analyses the statements made by the political groups in the National Assembly during the debates on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

From 6 to 13 December 1951, the Members of the French National Assembly debate the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). As the debates take place, the Communist group deplores the dangers of a future coal and steel pool and calls for non-ratification of the ECSC Treaty.

On 13 December 1951, the French National Assembly ratifies the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The following day, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer sends a telegram to Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, to congratulate him.

On 14 December 1951, the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité harshly criticises the propagandists of the Schuman Plan, particularly attacking the editorial line taken by the newspaper Franc-Tireur, and deplores the dangers for French workers posed by a future coal and steel pool.

‘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.

In 1951, on the margins of the ratification by the French National Assembly of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the French Communist Party (PCF) publishes a brochure in which it deplores the dangers of the Schuman Plan.

On 13 December 1951, the French National Assembly votes in favour of the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) despite the resolute opposition of the Gaullists and the Communists.

In 1952, writing in the French magazine Notre Europe, Léon Chevalme, representative of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), sets out the stance taken by the European trade unions on the Schuman Plan and on the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In 1951, the Belgian Federation of Coal Associations publishes a brochure criticising the risks of the Schuman Plan for the country’s economy, and outlines the main shortcomings of the ECSC Treaty.

In 1951, Pierre Delville, Director General of the company Evence Coppée et Cie and Chairman of the Association Charbonnière du Centre (Centre Coal Association), considers the impact of the Schuman Plan on the Belgian coal industry.

In its September–October 1951 edition, the Revue Franco–Belge, official mouthpiece of the Belgian Chamber of Commerce in Paris, publishes an article by Pierre van der Rest, chief representative of the Steelworkers’ Committee, which analyses the socio-economic impact of the Schuman Plan on industry in Belgium.

In 1951, Fernand Baudhuin, Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), outlines the position of the industrial and coal-producing sectors in the light of the future implementation of the Schuman Plan.

On 25 September 1951, in an article published in the Belgian Socialist newspaper Le Peuple, political journalist Victor Larock harshly criticises the intentionally intergovernmentalist interpretation made by Belgian Foreign Minister Paul van Zeeland of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 10 October 1951, the Brussels daily newspaper L’Écho de la Bourse warns Belgium’s general public and MPs against the great dangers that ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) would represent for the future of the country’s coal mines.

On 11 October 1951, the Brussels daily newspaper L’Écho de la Bourse reports on the fears expressed in some business circles in the United States and Western Europe regarding the philosophy of the Schuman Plan and of Jean Monnet, deemed to be overly favourable to interventionism and bureaucracy.

On 9 December 1951, the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique describes the fears among Belgian coal miners regarding the institutions that are to make up the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 15 December 1951, the Belgian conservative daily newspaper La Libre Belgique takes a cautious stance on the Schuman Plan, deeming it incapable of resolving the crisis affecting the Belgian coal industry.

On 30 January 1952, the Belgian Senate debates the question of the ratification of the Paris Treaty of 18 April 1951 establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

The high proportion of abstentions during ratification in the Senate on 5 February 1952 was due to the Socialists, who feared that the Belgian mining industry was not adapted to the new conditions defined by the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.

Two days after the Belgian Senate's ratification of the Schuman Plan, Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique attacks the behaviour of certain members of parliament during the parliamentary debates.

In 1952, writing in the French magazine Notre Europe, Fernand Dehousse, a Belgian Socialist Senator and militant pro-European, sets out the stance taken by Belgium on the Schuman Plan.

In 1951, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) publishes a brochure outlining the dangers of the Schuman Plan for the German economy and calls for the plan to be rejected.

On 6 April 1951, the East Berlin daily newspaper Tägliche Rundschau condemns the Schuman Plan and criticises the position of the West German Government which favours the pooling of European coal and steel output.

On 21 April 1951, the German daily newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reports on the political debates preceding ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Germany.

On 1 May 1951, the German magazine Die Gegenwart analyses the criticism levelled by Kurt Schumacher, leader of the West German Social Democratic Party, at a future European Coal and Steel Community as envisaged by the Schuman Plan.

On 15 June 1951, André Jacomet, legal adviser to the High Commissioner of the French Republic in Germany, reports on the debates being held in German political circles on the constitutional implications of the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 20 December 1951, as the debates for the ratification of the ECSC Treaty take place in the Bundestag, the Bulletin des Presse- und Informationsamtes der Bundesregierung analyses the discussions on the Schuman Plan in West Germany.

Ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) came about after a final reading of the text by the Bundesrat on 1 February 1952.

In 1952, Walter Hallstein, Junior Minister in the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), publishes an article in the French magazine Notre Europe on the repercussions of the Schuman Plan in Germany.

‘General Treaty: the Schuman Plan — the Ruhr armoury of the USA. “Traitors sign, but the German people will put a stop to their little game.”’ On 10 January 1952, the East Berlin daily newspaper Tägliche Rundschau condemns the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.

‘The Schuman Plan seen from three perspectives.' On 11 January 1952, the German cartoonist, Beuth, portrays the various ways in which the Schuman Plan is interpreted with regard to the future of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). From left to right: Kurt Schumacher, Leader of the West-German Social Democrat Party (SPD), foretells the enslavement of the German people; Konrad Adenauer, Federal Chancellor, predicts the revival of Germany; and Otto Grotewohl, Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), warns of the threat of West German rearmament.

Kurt Schumacher, leader of the West German Social Democratic Party and one of the main opponents to the Schuman Plan in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

On 12 January 1952, the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on the Bundestag’s adoption of the Schuman Plan and outlines the positions taken by certain German MPs before the final vote.

On 17 January 1952, the Bulletin of the Press and Information Office of the German Federal Government welcomes the adoption by the Bundestag of the bill ratifying the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 29 January 1952, the East German daily newspaperTägliche Rundschau vigorously denounces the West German Government’s approval of the Schuman Plan as a national betrayal of the German people.

On 1 February 1952, the Bundesrat expresses its support for the ratification of the Schuman Plan.

On 29 October 1951, the Groupement des industries sidérurgiques luxembourgeoises (GISL), an employers' organisation involving the three Luxembourg iron and steel companies, namely ARBED, the S.A. des Hauts-Fourneaux et Aciéries de Differdange-St.Ingbert-Rumelange and Minière et Métallurgique de Rodange, delivers its opinion on the Schuman Plan to the Luxembourg Government.

On 12 November 1951, as debates are held on the ratification of the ECSC Treaty, the Luxembourg Minister for the Economy, Michel Rasquin, sends a letter to the Foreign Minister, Joseph Bech, in which he outlines his observations on Luxembourg’s ratification of the European coal and steel pool.

On 16 November 1951, the Chamber of Labour of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg delivers a favourable opinion on the bill to approve the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 20 November 1951, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce publishes a detailed critical analysis of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 9 April 1952, the Luxembourg Council of State delivers its opinion, accompanied by some reservations of a legal nature, on the bill to approve the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 2 May 1952, the Central Section of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies publishes its report on the political and economic implications of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 8 May 1952, Tony Biever, MP, opens the debate in the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies on the government bill approving the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 8 May 1952, Joseph Bech, Luxembourg Foreign Minister, gives an address to the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies on the political and economic implications of the Schuman Plan.

On 14 May 1952, ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is obtained by a significant majority in the final vote in the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies.

On 14 May 1952, the Luxembourg daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort publishes part of the parliamentary debates that led to the ratification of the Schuman Plan by the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies the previous day.

On 15 May 1952, the Luxembourg daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort reports on the implications of the ratification, the previous day, of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the National Chamber of Deputies.

‘The Schuman Plan is home and dry’. On 20 May 1952, in the Luxembourg Socialist daily newspaper Tageblatt, the cartoonist Simon welcomes the commitment of the Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Joseph Bech, to ratify the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In 1951, the French monthly journal, the Nouvelle Revue de l’Économie Contemporaine publishes an article, written under the pseudonym Italicus, which reveals the concerns of Italian industrialists regarding the Treaty establishing a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 3 February 1951, the Dutch Embassy in Rome drafts a note on the reactions of the Italian general public to the Schuman Plan.

On 15 March 1952, the Senate of the Italian Republic adopts the government bill ratifying the Treaty of Paris of 18 April 1951 establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 15 March 1952, Alcide De Gasperi, Italian Prime Minister, urges the Italian Senate to ratify the ECSC Treaty and strongly refutes the criticism of the Schuman Plan levelled by Communist MPs.

On 15 March 1952, the Italian daily newspaper Giornale d’Italia outlines the positions taken by Italian Senators during the debates on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the Senate in Rome.

On 16 June 1952, the Italian Chamber of Deputies ratifies the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) despite hostile opposition from the Communists and from some Socialists.

On 17 June 1952, the Italian Communist daily newspaper L'Unità deplores the adoption of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the Italian Senate.

On 10 October 1951, the Dutch daily newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant ponders the implications of the European Coal and Steel Community for the coal and steel industries of the Netherlands.

On 13 October 1951, only the Communist members of parliament are hostile towards the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), submitted for parliamentary ratification by the Netherlands Government.

On 31 October 1951, the Dutch daily newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant outlines the positions taken by some Dutch MPs during the debates on the ratification of the Schuman Plan by the Second Chamber of the States-General of the Netherlands.

On 1 November 1951, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool comments on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the Lower House of the States-General in the Netherlands.

On 30 January 1952, the Committee of Rapporteurs submits its report on the ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) to the Netherlands Government and to the First Chamber of the States-General.

In 1952, Jan van den Brink, Netherlands Foreign Minister, publishes an article in the French magazine Notre Europe which sets out the Netherlands' stance on the Schuman Plan.