Key Quotations from Jean Monnet “A Red-Letter Day for European Unity” excerpts from speeches he gave to the European Coal and Steel Community officials in April 1953:
“In respect of coal and steel, the Community has set up a huge European market of more than 150 million consumers, i.e., equal in number to the population of the United States of America. Under the terms of the Treaty, customs duties and quota restrictions have been abolished between Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; the principal discriminations in respect of transport have been done away with.”
“…the decisions of this first European Executive, which is the High Authority, are being carried out in our six countries as if they were but one country….This first Common Market, these first supranational institutions, are the beginnings of a united Europe.”
“…the letters recently exchanged between President Eisenhower and the Foreign Affairs Committees of Congress…confirm in no uncertain manner the support which the United States is giving to our Community.”
“Our community embodies the principle underlying all further developments. This principle is very simple: it means the pooling of resources, the acceptance of common rules administered by common institutions vested with effective powers.”
“The Coal and Steel Community has begun to solve the hitherto insoluble common problems of Europeans, and has done so by overriding national differences and the rigidity of national sovereignties.”
“The common coal and steel market is a beginning, an experiment. Today’s meeting shows us that that experiment is succeeding. Indeed, it is the beginning of a wider, more comprehensive market, leading the way to vast production and the use of technical and material resources within our grasp…”
“The history of Europe, when we stand back to consider it, bears, I suggest all the signs of one of the world’s greatest tragedies….When