Interventions by the President and the Members of the High Authority before the Common Assembly

Directorate-General For Translation European Commission

Description

January session 1953, Strasbourg
Activities of the institutions and bodies
Coal - hydrocarbons

Sujets

• Legislative session
• Speech
• ECSC

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

EUROPEAN COAL AND
STEEL COMMUNITY
Interventio ns
by the
PRESIDENT and the MEMBERS
OF THE HIGH AUTHORITY
before the Common Assembly
January Session 1953
Strasbourg
12-13 JANUARY 1953 CONTENTS
Address by Mr. Jean MONNET, President of
the High Authority; 12 January 1953 5
Intervention by Mr. Franz ETZEL, Vice-Presi­
dent of the High Authority ; 13 January 1953 23
Intervention by Mr. Albert COPPE 2nd Vice-
President of the High Authority ; 13 Janu­
ary 1953 41
Intervention by Mr. Dirk P. SPIEKENBURG,
Member of the High Authority ; 13 January
1953 53
Intervention by Mr. Paul FINET, Member
of the High Authority ; 13 January 1953 .. 59
Intervention by Mr. Jean MONNET, President
of the High Authority; 13 January 1953.. 71 Address
delivered before the Common Assembly by
Mr. Jean MONNET,
PRESIDENT OF THE HIGH AUTHORITY
(Strasbourg, 12 January, 1953^
Mr. President, Madam, Gentlemen:
At the last Meeting we told you something
of the spirit in which we were embarking upon
our task. Today, as the Treaty prescribes,
we present to you the first general progress
report of our Community. It may be that you
have not had all the time needed to study
this document in detail, but we are sure that
you will understand the difficulties which have
prevented the High Authority from submit­
ting it earlier. During the interval between
the sessions, the meeting of your Organiza­
tional Committee in Luxembourg has given
us the chance for frank and exhaustive con­
versations. My task today is to give you a
brief account of the work done by the High
Authority to date. Essentially, this work has had four objects :
we have set up our services ; we have made
preparations for the opening of the Common
Market ; we have endeavoured to determine
the conditions conducive to an expansion of
the Community's industries, and finally we
have tightened our links with other countries,
our association with Great Britain having
made particularly good progress.
These activities have been closely inter­
related, and are described in the report which
has been distributed to you.
The essential fabric of our services has now
been organized. This was not a simple task.
We have received a warm welcome in Luxem­
bourg, but the fact that we are only tempo­
rarily installed there is a source of consider­
able inconvenience to our staff.
Until such time as the Committee of Pre­
sidents of the four Institutions of the Com­
munity, acting in conformity with Article 78
of the Treaty, has laid down the status of our
officials, we are recruiting our staff on the
basis of short-term contracts. We have no
desire to set up a bureaucratic organization.
Our method is to make the widest possible
use of consultations with producers, workers,
consumers and officials, and we have already invited to Luxembourg Committees or Work­
ing Parties composed of many of the foremost
specialists in our six countries.
Our total staff is 280, more than 60 of
whom work in the translation and interpre­
tation service, which is essential to an organi­
zation such as ours.
You will find the essential figures relating
to the administration of the Community and
the estimated expenditure for its four Insti­
tutions in the preliminary statement which
has been sent to you.
The most immediate task on which we have
been engaged is the preparation of the Com­
mon Market. During the next few weeks this
Market will be opened for coal, iron-ore and
scrap.
Abolishing the old divisions, the six coun­
tries have elected to pool resources to a value
of 5 or 6 milliard dollars per annum, repre­
senting 15 % of their industrial output ; indus­
tries which, by employing more than 1,750,000
persons, provide work for one out of ten of
their working population ; products which, up
to an output of about 300 million tons, repre­
sent more than 40 % of the total tonnage
transported within the Community. In 1952, 8
the six States produced 240 million tons of
coal and 42 million tons of crude steel.
Such are the dimensions of this Market,
which is to open in a few weeks' time,
providing free movement for two essential pro­
ducts over an area of 1,300,000 square kilo­
metres with more than 150 million consumers.
Before making the necessary decisions, the
High Authority engaged in very extensive con­
sultations. In November it appointed in Luxem­
bourg a Committee of Producers with a view
to ascertaining the present situation of supply
and demand, as well as market prospects for
1953. For several weeks discussions with the
experts of each country, forming a sequel to
a series of preliminary talks, have been taking
place in Luxembourg. As soon as the work
of this Assembly is finished, we shall hold an
exchange of views with the Council of Min­
isters. Lastly, the decisions we have prepared
will be submitted to the Consultative Committee
before being finally drafted.
What changes have to be made, and what
are the stages by which we shall make them ?
Hitherto, each country has based its actions
on a fundamental distinction between its own
products and those emanating from other
countries, between its own consumers and
those in the other countries.