french foreign minister robert schuman proposed the european coal and steel community.
who proposed the european coal and steel community?
french foreign minister robert schuman
in may 1950, a decisive moment in european history occurred when jean monnet, director of the "commissariat du plan" that oversaw france's economic recovery from the damages of world war ii proposed a high authority that would oversee an union of the coal and steel industries of france and west germany. monnet convinced the french foreign minister robert schuman of the political-economic advantages of this plan, and because the plan first become public when schuman announced it at a foreign ministers' conference in london, it became known as the "schuman plan". the "schuman plan" led to the european coal and steel community of 1951, which in turn became the european economic community in 1957, and was renamed the european union in 1993. massigli was completely opposed to the "schuman plan" because it ended his hopes of an anglo-french bloc, instead substituting a franco-german bloc as the core of an economic association of western european states. massigli's attempts to persuade bevin to join the planned european coal and steel community in the spring of 1950, which he desperately wanted as he very much wanted britain to counterbalance west germany, failed as bevin saw the "schuman plan" as a loss of british sovereignty. reluctantly, massigli submitted a 48 hour ultimatum saying the british could either join the european coal and steel community or not, which the british rejected.. even after bevin rejected the french offer to join the coal and steel community, massigli continued to argue to paris that the french should try to involve the british in the coal and steel community as much as possible over the objections of schumann.
rené massigli
flag of the european coal and steel community





















































the flag of the european coal and steel community was a horizontal bicolour flag defaced with stars which represented the european coal and steel community (ecsc) between 1958 (six years after the ecsc was founded) until 2002 when the community was merged into the european union (eu). prior to 1958 the ecsc did not have a flag, and no other flag has been used by a historical part of the european union other than the flag of europe.





















































section::::design.
flag of the european coal and steel community