proposal as follows:
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, and will change the destinies of those regions which have long been devoted to the manufacture of munitions of war, of which they have been the most constant victims.
Schuman (2003, p. 2), went on the offer more details as to how the new ECSC would operate, to wit:
In contrast to international cartels, which tend to impose restrictive practices on distribution and the exploitation of national markets, and to maintain high profits, the organization will ensure the fusion of markets and the expansion of production.
The ECSC has been identified as an immediate success. Van Oudenaren (1999) as well as Anthony Sampson (1968) take the position that the elimination of barriers to trade in the coal and steel sectors not only contributed to the European economic resurgence of the early 1950s. Perhaps more significantly, this mechanism began the process of reconciliation between the combatants in World War II and helped to form a nuclear of Western European nations in opposition to the Eastern Bloc. It further embodied the commitment of selected nation-states to the practice of federalism. However, the ECSCÆs scope of activity was limited to a single economic sector and this led ECSC members to look for new and broader ways for European integration to proceed.
The success of this early union prompted further integrative efforts:
It came in 1955 and took the form of proposals for the formation of a European Economic Community (EEC). Its objective in the field of trade was to operate a customs union applying to all types of goods. A Community concerned with the non-military development of atomic energy was also to be established. It was on the basis of those proposals that negotiations were conducted which led to the treaties e...