This week the Schuman Plan will be embodied in a draft treaty. Europe's most important postwar act of statesmanship after the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treatywill be ready for initialing by technical experts of France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands.
It had taken Europe seven months to reach this notable stage in its quest for unity. At a cabinet meeting in May 1950, France's able Robert Schuman had drawn from his briefcase the dramatic proposal to integrate French and German coal mines and steel mills. More, he said, was at stake than an economic rationalization....
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