EUROPE'S REALISTIC HONEYMOON
Durand, Lionel
Europe's Realistic Honeymoon By LIONEL DURAND Paris WITH THE signing of the Schuman Plan for the pooling of the steel and coal industries of France, Italy. Germany and the Benelux states. Western...
...The draft treaty, coming up for signature at this writing, calls the establishment of a High Authority to which the six nations will delegate their mandatory powers...
...As early as 1926, a European cartel put steel and coal output in the hands of powerful French, British, and German monopolies...
...The opposition is made up of big industrialists on the one hand, who refuse to accept the plan's policy against cartel concentrations and the German Socialist Party, on the other hand, which fears that the pool will jeopardize its demand for the nationalization of the steel and coal industries of the Ruhr...
...However, the coal mines and steel plants of the Ruhr basin, the iron ore deposits of Luxemburg, the Lorraine foundries, operating independently from and in competition with one another, could never fill the needs of Western Europe...
...Socialist Leader Dr...
...Not only in Germany but through out the countries involved in the Pool negotiations, pressure was brought to bear against the Plan...
...Monnet took up the issues one by one...
...Within the market, all iducers will have equal access to lets while all consumers will have lal access to supply...
...They will gradually eliminate the steel factories' control over coal mines which supplied more than they needed for their normal production...
...Jean Monnet stood firm, however, and got U. S. High Commissioner John McCloy to act as go-between...
...Supply was artificially controlled while prices were kept high...
...Customs lights will be abolished and no barriers will restrict the free traffic of steel and coal within the six nations' community...
...Jean Monnet now has sober optimism over the future of the Plan...
...There is no doubt in anybody's mind that the Schuman Plan can change the face of Western Europe...
...The area's population has the largest density of skilled labor in Europe...
...Trim and conservative in his tastes, Monnet has kept a terrific space in his overwhelming job as France's chief economic planner...
...He succeeded in convincing the German delegation that a stand against cartels was a good risk to take...
...If powerful interests are still hoping to prevent a positive vote in the six Parliaments, public opinion in the countries involved has been overwhelmingly favorable...
...If, at the moment, German resistance to rearmament has quieted down the efforts to integrate Germany in the Atlantic Alliance, it is by no means certain that more urgent attempts will not be made when conditions permit...
...He first had to convince many people for many different reasons...
...This constitutes a revolutionary step...
...M. Monnet summed up the Plan's advantages this way: "Economically the Schuman Plan is a revolution in the sense that it gives all participating countries a free and equal access to basic resources...
...A singe market, covering the territories of France, West Germany, Italy, and the Benelux, is to be the immediate result of the Schuman m treaty...
...In 1950, the United States, with a population of 150 million people, used over seventy million tons of finished steel for civilian production...
...Jean Monnet's part in the conclusion of the Plan's negotiations has been a difficult role...
...Socially speaking the Plan creates in Europe the conditions for mass production which are the foundation of an improved standard of life...
...Some time ago, during a private talk with Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, the 20 The PROGRESSIVE question came up as to whether normal and peaceful relations between France and Germany could survive at a time when both Russia and the United States are trying to outbid each other to win Frenchmen and influence Germans...
...Railways, roads, rivers, and canals spread a vast network of communications within this community whose shores are on the North Sea, the busiest stretch of water in the world...
...A limited amount of the six nations' sovereignty is vested with the High Authority which seeks to replace relations on a national basis by a joint effort for the continental community...
...On May 9, 1950, Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, in a statement which came as a complete surprise, made his proposal for the pooling of the coal and steel industries of Western Europe, under a supra-national authority, and the creation of a single market of 150 million consumers...
...Even as strong opposition to the Plan is shaping up before ratification by the various parliaments, the very quarters which are trying to sabotage the project are in agreement with the plan's partisans on the need for such a steel and coal pool...
...Whether or not the critics are justified in claiming that the supranational authority is bound to overstep its prerogatives, a system of checks and balances has been worked out to guard against abuse...
...for the first time, European industries will work on the basis of equality of supply, without double prices or artificial shortages...
...Certainly, the coal and steel pool is one of the realistic foundations on which France and Germany can build a lasting modus vivendi...
...They call for the breaking up of the sales organization which controlled all the deals made by German manufacturers...
...Not a Maginot Line the best chance ever given Europe...
...The long negotiations leading to the final agreement and the forthcoming fight before ratification by the six nations' parliaments may succeed in wearing out some of the dramatic impact of the French proposal, but a thoughful analysis of the Plan shows that it constitutes one of the most significant events of our times...
...Thus was removed, in French minds, the fear of a resurgence of German militarism...
...Permanent consultations will take place between the high authority and the worker's unions...
...He is determined to s through because, in his view, LIONEL DURAND, foreign editor wl Paris Presse, roams Europe constantly for the second largest daily in the French capital...
...Among the realists in French political quarters, it is said that the Schuman Plan commits German industry to a European objective...
...Meanwhile, statements by President Truman and Secretary of State Acheson have made it quite clear that the Plan's objectives run parallel to U. S. policy in Europe...
...Customs barriers, old equipment, and currency complications have combined to make production expensive and distribution inadequate...
...Already 1,500,000 workers are directly affected by the pool, while ten times as many workers, employed in industries related to coal and steel, will indirectly be involved in the experiment...
...What one century of economic nationalism has done to European industry is still plainly visible despite the amazing comeback of recent years...
...The Schuman Plan is a community and that means the first foundation of a United Europe...
...Durand was that paper's correspondent in Washington and New York for several years...
...It removes competition on a national basis to create competition through efficiency, for the common good...
...First, there were the people who thought that the Plan would be a super-cartel with profits for the big industrialists only...
...Can their standard of living be improved as the single market creates an expanded outlet for European industries...
...In the view of independent observers, the chances are slightly better than even in favor of the Schuman Plan's ratification...
...But as prospects are getting brighter both for the early signature of the Schuman Plan and the postponement of German rearmament, it can be safely assumed that Paris and Bonn are embarking on a "realistic honeymoon...
...He quieted the fears of the Belgian Government when it expressed anxiety over the fate of Belgium's coal mines, which have a high operating cost and therefore may be partly shut down...
...II Obviously, since such a Plan is a radical departure from established practices in Western Europe, a transition period has been contemplated during which the various cogs in the machinery will be tried and perfected...
...I put the question to the man who, more than any other individual, is responsible for the Schuman Plan...
...However, the Schuman Plan is bound to make German rearmament an easier pill to swallow...
...Kurt Schumacher is prepared to challenge Chancellor Adenauer's endorsement of the Schuman Plan during the debate in the Bundestag, where the government has only a slim majority...
...The Schuman Plan was initiated by M. Jean Monnet who is also the author of France's five-year plan for the reconstruction and modernization of industry...
...Ill The most important single aspect of the Plan is undoubtedly its potential capacity to achieve a permanent rapprochement between France and Germany...
...Production facilities are naturally available since steel factories are practically built on coal mines...
...Politically, the supra-national institutions will serve as unbreakable links between countries which were always divided...
...In an area of the size of Wisconsin lies a powerful concentration of industrial assets...
...The ultimate result will be the possibility for all producers of steel anywhere within the Schuman Plan community to have access to the raw materials in the Ruhr...
...Only the war broke up the big cartel concentration which had allowed the Ruhr industrialists to build up Hitler's instrument of political and economic domination...
...It is still hoped that a formula can be worked out to pife$ mote some form of association be* tween the pool nations and Great Britain...
...Jean Monnet, who is known to many a State Department and ECA official as "the only efficient Frenchman in France," is in his early sixties...
...The British press has published numerous editorials condemning the Labor Government for refusing to join up...
...This can mean the beginning of Europe...
...This has never been contemplated with satisfaction in France, although a large section of the opinion here was ready to accept the inevitable...
...Western Europe is taking its boldest step toward integration...
...But, he said to me, what we want to do is to place those relations on a realistic basis...
...With the same combined population, the six Schuman Plan countries used only sixteen million tons...
...As they now stand, the provisions of the Schuman Plan are almost cartel-proof...
...In Paris, there was some conflict between those, mostly around Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, who would rather see the plan accepted, because of its political implications, than insist on the original provisions against cartels...
...A comparison between European and American standards shows what room there is, in this part of the world, for increased production...
...German and French relations should not be an affaire de coeur but a reasonable attempt to live together and work together...
...Beginning with two key products such as steel and coal, the plan seeks to make a bold experiment in integration, which may be followed by similar projects for agriculture and transport...
...The High Authority must report to a six-nations' Parliament and an International Court of Justice may be called to arbitrate...
...These quarters feel that the Ruhr can no longer be a platform for German imperialism...
...The idea of the steel and coal pool for Western Europe came to him naturally, since he has been thinking as a European, and a well-travelled one, for years...
...This is why the French National Assembly had requested that the Government refuse to agree to German rearmament before the Schuman Plan was signed...
...Membership of this body is to come from independent technicians chosen on the basis of their professional ability rather than political influence...
...A six-powers Council of Ministers will represent the national viewpoints and act as an advisory board for the High Authority...
...The Schuman Plan is nothing but French logic applied to geographical facts...
...After the signing of the Treaty, however, conversations will officially take place between the Plan's executive body, the High Authority, and the British Government...
...M. Schuman agreed that it was sometimes difficult to carry out his policy of cordial relations with the Federal Government of Germany because of external pressure...
...Discrimination practices are forbidden and all resources are to be distributed among the countries according to their needs...
...The Ruhr industrialists have been more emphatic in their opposition and have used every trick in the books to block its acceptance, including direct threat to the Federal government which, clearly, derives much of its strength from their support...
...Then when the anti-cartel provisions were known, Monnet had a fight with the big interests on his hands...
...Consultations will take place on a permanent basis with representatives of producers, consumers, labor unions, and national governments...
...Since then, the Assembly was by-passed and an agreement in principle was wrested from the French Government...
Vol. 15 • May 1951 • No. 5
