European Coal and Steel Community

European Coal and Steel Community Danish: Det Europæiske Kul- og Stålfællesskab Dutch: Europese Gemeenschap voor Kolen en Staal Finnish: Euroopan hiili- ja teräsyhteisö French: Communauté européenne du charbon et de l'acier German: Europäische Gemeinschaft für Kohle und Stahl Greek: Ευρωπαϊκή Κοινότητα Άνθρακα και Χάλυβα Italian: Comunità europea del carbone e dell'acciaio Portuguese: Comunidade Europeia do Carvão e do Aço Spanish: Comunidad Europea del Carbón y del Acero Swedish: Europeiska kol- och stålgemenskapen
International organisation
1952–2002¹
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Founding members of the ECSC: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany (Algeria was an integral part of the French Republic)
Capital		Not applicable²
Languages		11 (2002)³ Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Greek Italian Portuguese Spanish Swedish
Political structure		International organisation
President of the High Authority
•	1952–1955	Jean Monnet
•	1955–1958	René Mayer
•	1958–1959	Paul Finet
•	1959–1963	Piero Malvestiti
•	1963–1967	Rinaldo Del Bo
Historical era		Cold War
•	Signing (Treaty of Paris)	18 April 1951
•	In force	23 July 1952
•	Merger	1 July 1967
•	Treaty expired	23 July 2002¹
Preceded by Succeeded by IAR (Germany) International Authority for the Ruhr European Union
Today part of		European Union
¹ The ECSC treaty expired in 2002, fifty years after it came into force, but its institutions were taken over in 1967 following the Merger Treaty. ² The political centres were Luxembourg and Strasbourg, later also Brussels. ³Initial founding languages, before the merger and subsequent enlargements, were Dutch, French, German and Italian.

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The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was an international organisation serving to unify certain Continental European countries after World War II. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, which was signed by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The ECSC was the first international organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism, and would ultimately lead the way to the founding of the European Union.

The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 as a way to prevent further war between France and Germany. He declared his aim was to "make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible" which was to be achieved by regional integration, of which the ECSC was the first step. The Treaty would create a common market for coal and steel among its member states which served to neutralise competition between European nations over natural resources, particularly in the Ruhr.