An Atlas of the European Economic Community

Abstract

In May 1950, Robert Schuman, then the Foreign Minister of France proposed the establishment of a common market among the countries of Western Europe in coal, iron, and steel. The treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community came into effect a little over two years later, and its success encouraged the creation of the other communities, the Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community itself. The latter began to operate at the beginning of 1958 and extended to the whole field of international trade the principles which underlay the original common market in coal and steel.