On 10 May 1950, at a meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, leading British ministers comment on the declaration made the previous day by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, and criticise the French initiative to create a coal and steel pool in Europe.

On 11 May 1950, various British ministries draft a joint note for the attention of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet in which they analyse the possible economic repercussions of the implementation of the Schuman Plan and outline the origins of the French proposal.

On 25 May 1950, the French Government invites London to take part in the negotiations for the establishment of a European coal and steel pool.

On 26 May 1950, the British Embassy in Paris sends a message to the French Government describing the United Kingdom’s hesitations with regard to the Schuman Plan.

On 30 May 1950, in order to dispel any misunderstanding between France and the United Kingdom over the fundamental objectives of the Schuman Plan, the French government sends a memorandum to the British government setting out the main inspiration for the planned coal and steel pool, while emphasising the scope of the proposed bases for negotiation.

On 17 June 1950, the English weekly magazine The New Statesman and Nation reports on the British position towards the French plan for the pooling of coal and steel production in Western Europe.

On 20 April 1951, in an internal report, the British government comments on the main provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and analyses their repercussions for the United Kingdom.

In 1952, Christopher Hollis, a Conservative MP and British delegate to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, sets out in the French magazine Notre Europe the stance adopted by the British Conservative Party in 1950 on the intergovernmental negotiations on the Schuman Plan.

In July 1952, with a view to the future relations between the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the United Kingdom, the British Foreign Secretary drafts a memorandum advocating the establishment of a British delegation to the ECSC High Authority.

On 21 December 1954, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the United Kingdom sign an agreement on the basis of which the two parties intend to establish an intimate and enduring association.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Principal Private Secretary (from 1952 to 1956) to Jean Monnet and then to René Mayer during their respective Presidencies of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), describes the course of the negotiations in 1954 and the implementation of the Association Agreement between the ECSC and the United Kingdom from 1955.

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).

In May 1950, the National Executive Committee of the British Labour Party publishes a manifesto entitled European Unity in which it sets out the official British position on the question of European unity.

On 17 May 1950, the National Coal Board, the statutory corporation for the British coal industry, gives its first impressions of the issues surrounding the Schuman Plan and analyses the possible repercussions for the national coal industry.

In 1950, the leading French steel companies give their reactions to the plan for a common market in steel under the Schuman Plan.

On 12 July 1950, industrialist Jules Aubrun, Head of the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association, sends a note to French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman outlining the views of France’s leading iron and steel companies with regard to the economic and political issues surrounding the plan for a European coal and steel pool.

On 13 November 1950, Jules Aubrun, President of the French Iron and Steel Employers’ Federation, sends to René Pleven, French Prime Minister, a letter in which he complains of being sidelined from the negotiations on the Schuman Plan.

On 17 November 1950, Jean Monnet sends a letter to Jules Aubrun, head of the French Steel Industry Employers’ Association, in which he refutes the allegations made by Aubrun on the distance between the French steel industry and the current negotiations on the Schuman Plan.

On 21 November 1950, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Committee on European Affairs adopts a declaration on the implementation of the Schuman Plan.

In this note to the French Government, the Employers' Federation of the French Steel Industry expresses its concern about the opening-up of the national market to competition from steel products from other Member States of the future European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In December 1950, the journal Notre Europe sets out for its readership the arguments put forward by the French Planning Commission to counter the criticism levelled at the Schuman Plan to pool European coal and steel.

On 5 January 1951, the Netherlands Trade Union Federation draws up an internal note on the attitude of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in connection with the negotiations under way in Paris on the Schuman Plan.

On 10 March 1951, the industrial journal L’Usine belge reports on the concern of the national industrial federations of the six countries involved in the Schuman Plan, in particular regarding the powers of the future High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community.

On 28 March 1951, the Belgian Organisation of Blast Furnaces and Steel Works sets out the stance taken by the Belgian iron and steel industry on the draft Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and on its various transitional provisions.

On 2 April 1951, Albert Bureau, Director for the Iron and Steel Industry in the French Ministry of Industrial Production, drafts a note outlining the reasons why the development of the coal and steel industries in the Lorraine region as a counterbalance to the Ruhr basin is one of the political conditions for the success of the Schuman Plan.

On 4 April 1951, the Central Council for the Economy, a public consultative body for the Belgian economy, delivers its opinion on the establishment of a common European market for coal and steel and on the implications thereof for the national economy.

On 13 April 1951, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Director-General of Economic and Financial Affairs at the High Commission of the French Republic in Germany, writes a letter to Alain Poher, French representative at the International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR), to inform him of the strong opposition from the German unions to the dissolution of the Deutscher Kohlenverkauf (DKV), the sole selling agency for Ruhr coal.

On 9 June 1951, Franz Grosse, Director of the German trade union Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, outlines to Pierre Uri, French economic adviser at the National Planning Board, the decisions taken by the extraordinary assembly of German mining delegates concerning the reorganisation of the German coal sector.

On 28 June 1951, Albert Bureau, Director of the Iron and Steel Industry in the French Ministry of Industrial Production, drafts a report on the implications of the demerging of the German iron and steel industry in the Ruhr industrial basin.