The Europe Declaration, also known as the Charter of the Community, was a joint statement issued by the Foreign Ministers of

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

in 1951. The Declaration was issued at the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which created the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to integrate Europe's coal and steel industries into a single common market based on the principle of supranationalism which would be governe ...

(ECSC) based on the Schuman Plan, on 18 April 1951. The Declaration said that the ECSC marked the birth of the Europe as a political, economic and social entity, reflecting the principles that

Robert Schuman Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 1886 – 4 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born France, French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democrat, Christian democratic (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. ...

had announced in the Schuman Declaration of 1950. It included the statement:

"By the signature of this Treaty, the involved parties give proof of their determination to create the first supranational institution and that thus they are laying the true foundation of an organised Europe. This Europe remains open to all European countries that have freedom of choice. We profoundly hope that other countries will join us in our common endeavour."'' Der Schuman Plan. Vertrag ueber die Gruendung der europaeischen Gemeinschaft fuer Kohl und Stahl'', p21 Ulrich Sahm mit einem Vorwort von Walter Hallstein. Frankfurt 1951.

The declaration was signed by

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

(West Germany), Paul van Zeeland, Joseph Meurice (Belgium),

(France), Count Carlo Sforza (Italy),

Joseph Bech Joseph Bech (17 February 1887 – 8 March 1975)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848." Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the prime minist ...

(Luxembourg),

Dirk Stikker Dirk Uipko Stikker (5 February 1897 – 23 December 1979) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Liberal State Party (LSP), co-founder of the defunct Freedom Party (PvdV) and of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (V ...

and

Jan van den Brink Johannes Roelof Maria "Jan" van den Brink (12 April 1915 – 19 July 2006) was a Dutch politician of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and businessman. He was minister of Economic Affairs in three successive governments from 1948 till 1952. ...

(Netherlands). It was made to recall

future generations Future generations are Cohort (statistics), cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The Moral agenc ...

to their historic duty of uniting Europe based on liberty and democracy under the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

. Thus, they viewed the creation of a wider and deeper Europe as intimately bound to the healthy development of the supranational or Community system.

References

External links

Description of the declaration
on

European NAvigator The Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe ( French for "Virtual Centre for Knowledge on Europe "; abbreviated CVCE) is an interdisciplinary research and documentation centre dedicated to European integration studies. It develops a digit ...

{{EU treaties and declarations Declarations of the European Union 1951 in Europe 1951 documents