Brussels, 24/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the commemoration ceremony organised at the European Economic and Social Committee to mark the expiry of the ECSC Treaty (see yesterday's Europe, p.11), the ESC President Göke Frerichs said: "Contrary to a widespread misconception today, the European Coal and Steel Community was also an eminently political project… For Robert Schuman, for Jean Monnet, who had conceived the project, for Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi, for Joseph Luns and Paul Henri Spaak and for Joseph Bech, who spontaneously endorsed the project and did much to make it a reality, the ECSC was, as the Schuman Declaration literally says, "a first step in the federation of Europe". Walter Hallstein… one of the architects of both the ECSC and the EEC Treaties, and later the first president and thus, in a real sense, the creator of the European Commission, pointed out on many occasions that he EEC and ECSC were in every respect highly political ventures. Their aims were political, as were their institutions, procedures and achievements." For the future, Frerichs said that "it is vital that we draw on the Consultative Committee's experience as we support the process of industrial change in the Central and Eastern European countries that will shortly be joining the EU" welcoming the fact that on the suggestion of the European Commission and with the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council, "it will be possible to carry on the work of the ECSC Consultative Committee within the ESC. We intend to draw on the experience of the past fifty years to break new ground - to establish a new kind of structured dialogue and adopt a holistic approach to the problems of industrial change. The European Economic and Social Committee is delighted to take on this fascinating responsibility, and will shoulder it with commitment", said Frerichs.
The President of the Consultative Committee, Enrico Gibellieri, said (unofficial translation): "We changed our industries from war industries to peace industries. I hope the European Convention that is looking at the future of the European Union will bear this in mind". Gibellieri said he was certain the ECSC heritage "would continue to contribute to the European process and the extremely important social dimension would be emphasised". Fritz Hellwig, former Member of the ECSC High Authority said that when he returned from being a prisoner of war in North America in Summer 1947, the debate on the future of the Ruhr and on dissolving the German coal and steel cartels was had begun: "From the beginning, political integration objectives were present and these objectives characterised the High Authority…The Association Agreement between the UK and the ECSC, which were not foreseen in the Paris Treaty, made it possible to break British isolation. The Association Council was the first step towards solving the problem of the UK which remained outside the EU." Hellwig said the EEC "had been baptised in 1958 but was preceded by 6 years of the ECSC".
Jacques René Rabier, one of Jean Monnet's colleagues in Paris from 1946 to 1952 and then in Luxembourg from 1953 to 1955 said: "We are not celebrating the death of the ECSC but the birth of the first "European Community" without which there would most likely be only a level of intergovernmental cooperation of different levels of flexibility between our countries". On Jean Monnet, "who inspired Robert Schuman", Rabier talked of his passion for peace between nations as appears in the Schuman Declaration and in the preamble to the ECSC Treaty; "his strategy of confidence towards his interlocutors (Schuman and Adenauer, for example), colleagues and staff", perseverance - one ideas at a time, but pursued relentlessly, in a small group, discretely, until it paid off" and "ambitious modesty - Monnet did not seek the limelight, but to influence the holders of power and the connected honours". In his lively, personal speech, Rabier spoke of his memories of the beginnings of the ECSC in Luxembourg: "a light, not yet hierarchical administration, with some units led by two "Directors" of different nationalities; contagious enthusiasm not of ideologues shouting "Europe! Europe!" every morning but of men and women of different national, cultural and political origins, most of whom were aware of being involved in a great adventure on which the future of their countries and therefore of their children would depend". On these first European officials, Rabier made a distinction (which he felt held good today) between those who concentrate on their dossiers (and they are needed) and those who focus on the problems to be solved (they are needed too), but they are not as common. The example must first be set from above", he explained.
The new Spanish foreign minister (also a Member of the Praesidium of the European Convention) Ana Palacio addressed the ceremony as a European citizen rather than as a minister since, as she explained, she was invited to the event before being appointed minister, saying she had learned her lessons at the EP, where she explained the fascination wrought by figures like Max Kohnstamm and Fritz Hellwig on young people of her generation. She said Spain was European in its heart and guts with European citizenship being one of Spain's contributions, along with the European area of freedom and justice, adding that over time, others would join the founding fathers' spirit. Today, she said, we are at a crossroads, a turning point… The Convention on the Future of the EU is a genuine European advance. She said she was neither euro-optimist nor europessimist, concluding that they should have more confidence in themselves.