The Treaty of Paris (formally the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community) was signed on 18 April 1951 between France, Italy,

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 ...

, Belgium,

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 ...

, and the Netherlands, establishing 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), which subsequently became part of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The treaty came into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002, exactly fifty years after it came into effect. The treaty was intended to bring diplomatic and economic stability in western Europe after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Some of the main enemies during the war were now sharing production of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

, the key resources which previously had been central to the war effort. The Europe Declaration, issued by the representatives of the six nations, declared that the Treaty had given birth to ''Europe''. The Declaration emphasised that the supranational principle was the foundation of the new democratic organisation of Europe. The supranational concept was opposed by

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

EU evolution timeline

References

External links

Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community
on

Eur-Lex EUR-Lex is the official online database of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union (EU), published in 24 official Languages of the European Union, languages of the EU. The Official Journal of the European Union, Offici ...

Treaties overview on EUR-Lex

on CVCE.eu

{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty of Paris (1951) Terminated or expired founding treaties of the European Union Treaties concluded in 1951 Treaties entered into force in 1952 1951 in the European Economic Community 1952 in the European Economic Community 1951 in Paris April 1951 in Europe Euro

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

Economic history of Paris