Founding of the EGKS

© Archives du ministère des Affaires étrangères, Paris The treaty establishing the „European Coal and Steel Community“ (EGKS) - page with signatures and signets of the signatories

On 18 April 1951 in Paris, the foreign ministers of the Benelux nations, France, Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany sign the treaty establishing the „European Coal and Steel Community“ (EGKS). The founding of the coal and steel union dates back to a plan by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman. By means of an international control of coal and steel industries he intended to prevent once and for all the outbreak of a war in Europe. The principal goals of the community are: Internal tariffs between the member nations shall be eliminated, external tariffs shall be standardized and a common market for coal and steel finally be created. For the Federal Republic this will mean an end to control of the Ruhr District, since 1949, by the International Ruhr Authority when the treaty will go into effect on 23 July 1952. The EGKS constitutes the nucleus for the European Economic Community (EWG) which will be founded in 1957.