When it was time to select the President of the first EEC Commission, the presidency of the High Authority of the ECSC was a French fiefdom (from Monnet to Finet via Mayer). Monnet lent his support to a Dutch Minister of steady temperament and well-known Federalist views, Sicco Mansholt. He also saw Jean Rey, the Belgian Minister for Economic Affairs, as a good potential candidate. For the fledgling Euratom Community, Paris backed Louis Armand. Germany asserted its own rights; acceding to...