Schuman Plan

Schuman Plan 

a plan for integrating the coal, iron, and metallurgical industries of several Western European states proposed in 1950 by the French foreign minister R. Schuman.

The Schuman Plan served as the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was established by a treaty signed by the governments of the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg at a meeting in Paris on Apr. 18,1951. The ECSC is one of the largest international state monopoly organizations in the capitalist world. In 1975 it controlled about 90 percent of the steel, almost 100 percent of the coal, and 50 percent of the iron ore produced in Western Europe. Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined the ECSC on Jan. 1, 1973. The implementation of the Schuman Plan was one the first steps toward the capitalist economic integration of Western Europe.

REFERENCES

Shebanov, A. N. Evropeiskoe ob”edinenie uglia i stall. Moscow, 1968.
Ekonomicheskie gruppirovki v Zapadnoi Evrope. Moscow, 1969.
Kövér, J. F. Le Plan Schuman: Ses Mérites, ses risques. Lettre de R. Schuman. Paris, 1952.
Gerbet, P. La Genese du plan Schuman: Des Origines à la déclaration du 9 mai 1950. Lausanne, 1962.
Collins, D. The European Communities: The Social Policy of the First Phase, vols. 1–2. London, 1975.