low-interest loan of $650 million. In return, France opened its cinemas to American movies. The Monnet Plan Faced with the challenge of reconstruction after WWII, in 1946 France implemented the Modernization and Re-equipment Plan, which was designed to spur economic recovery. This plan is commonly known as the “Monnet Plan” after Jean Monnet, the chief advocate and first head of the General Planning Commission (Le Commissariat général du Plan). The Monnet Plan emphasized expansion, modernization, efficiency, and modern management practice. Its process – focusing, prioritizing, and pointing the way – has been called “indicative planning” to differentiate it from highly directive and rigid Soviet style planning. The Plan’s initial objectives included exceeding France’s 1929 production level by 25% in 1950, which implied an ambitious 11% annual growth rate over five years. Although not all of the goals were met, the Plan has been credited with providing direction, vision, and hope to the nation, and it set France on the road to an economic miracle in the 1950s. The Monnet Plan created the impetus for French foreign minister Robert Schuman’s proposal to pool the French and German markets for coal and steel. The Schuman Plan led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, which laid the foundation for the 1958 establishment of the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. European Coal and Steel Community Following World War II, when tensions between France and Germany rose over the control of the then vital coal and steel industries, Monnet proposed replacing the International Authority for the Ruhr with an agreement to pool French and German coal and steel industries. On 9 May 1950, with the agreement of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Schuman made a declaration in the name of the French government. This landmark pronouncement, prepared by Monnet for Schuman and known as the Schuman Declaration, proposed integration of the French and German coal and steel industries under joint control of a High Authority, open to the other countries of Europe. Schuman declared: Through the consolidation of basic production and the institution of a new High Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and the other countries that join, this proposal represents the first concrete step towards a European federation, imperative for the preservation of peace. The date of the Schuman Declaration, 9 May, has been adopted as Europe