ECSCの成立と欧州統合の発展

Abstract

The Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 launched the process of the integration of Europe. It puts forward the following:“Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.…The pooling of coal and steel production should immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe, …”In order to clarify the edifice of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) which was formally established in 1952 as Europe's first organization that involved the yielding by member states of some sovereignty to a supranational authority, we will focus on two matters. Firstly, the creation of the common market in the transitional period and secondly, the common steel policy in the period of the steel crisis.The ECSC started to construct the common markets for coal, scrap, iron ore and steel in 1953 and built them over the five-year transitional period. First We will examine especially the construction of the common market for coal, because it concists of a lot of important achievements for the establishment of the basis for the Community.The ECSC created the common market, in which the movement of goods between Member States was not hindered by their crossing national frontiers. However it was very difficult for coal and steel enterprises to keep completely free movement of goods at the first stage. The High Authority decreed maximum prices of coal, the cessation of price alinement in the new price system and implementation of zonal prices. The High Authority allowed Member States to give subsidies and assistance to their coal industries. It tried to adjust interests of member countries to establish the common market and succeeded in doing so.The steel industry had favorably developed until the middle of the 1970s, but after that the business recession began to deepen. The ECSC implemented the Simonet Plan against the steel crisis in April 1977 and published indicative minimum prices. In May 1977 it took a stronger line on steel policy. It resulted in the creation of the Davignon Plan, which set mandatory minimum prices for concrete bars and protection against imports which constitute or threaten to constitute a serious danger to production in the common market of similar or directly competitive products.The Davignon Plan was reinforced in January 1978. However prices of steel continued to go down and the steel market fell in confusion. The EC Commission established a system of mandatory production quotas for undertakings in the iron and steel industry in October 1980 under Article 58 of the ECSC Treaty, which provides that in the event of a decline in demand, if the High Authority considers that the Community is confronted with a period of manifest crisis and that the means of action provided for in Article 57 are not sufficient to deal with this, it shall establish a system of production quotas. The EC Commission played a supranational leading part in the steel crisis.Mr. Narjes from Germany took over the common steel policy in 1985. He finished the system of production quotas in June 1988, because the crisis had ended.The ECSC succeeded in creating the basis for European integration, and contributed greatly to the progress of the European coal and steel industry and to the establishment of a United Europe.