850.33/6–2450: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Bruce ) to the Secretary of State
3080. Attention Perkins, inform Hoffman ECA. This is second in series transmitting translated text working paper containing French draft treaty on Schuman plan. See Embtel 3079.
[Page 730](This message contains verbatim text.) Begin continuation of text:
Article 7. The states whose interests are affected by a decision or a recommendation of the high authority may, with [within?] (blank) days following the transmittal of such decision or recommendation, request the high authority to re-examine its position.
At the expiration of the period thus fixed, or immediately in the case of a confirmatory decision following a second reading, the decision or recommendation shall be made public.
Decisions dealing with the procedure, regulations and other measures of an internal order as well as the suggestions of high authority may be published immediately.
The same right of appeal shall be open to enterprises in case of a decision or a recommendation directed to them individually.
Article 8. Within (blank) days after the publication of a decision or a recommendation of the high authority which has been confirmed on second reading, a state party to the treaty or an individual enterprise to which such decision or recommendation was directed could have the matter referred to an ad hoc court of arbitration. As an example, this court might consist of five members; the International Court of Justice and the International Labor Organization would each designate a member of the court and the states parties to the treaty would by agreement designate the three other members, using the procedure prescribed in Article 3. These three members should, as far as possible, be chosen from nationals of states not parties to the particular cause, or from persons not connected with the affected enterprise. The member designated by International Court of Justice would be the president of the court.
Appeal would be admissible only if they were founded on the violation of treaty obligations binding on the high authority or, with respect to appeals by states, if the decision or recommendation questioned was of such a nature as to compromise either a policy of full employment in an expanding economy or the equilibrium of the external balance of the interest state.
If the court should decide that there had been a violation of treaty obligations, its decision shall be binding on the parties.
In all other cases where an appeal was admissible, the court would act as a mediator and would address to the high authority a recommendation as defined in Article 6.
In principle, the taking of an appeal would not have the effect of suspending the decision of the high authority pending a determination of the appeal.
Article 9. The high authority shall publish each year a complete report on its activities, at least one month before the convening of the common assembly at the seat of the high authority.
Article 10. An auditor shall be appointed for three years by the member governments in accordance with the procedure set forth in Article 3. He shall be required to make an annual report on the state of the accounts and the financial management of the high authority. This report shall be referred to the high authority and shall be attached by it to its annual report.
[Page 731]Article 11. Once a year, the parliament of each of the member states shall elect delegates drawn from its own membership. All of those elected shall convene once each year in a common assembly for the purposes set forth in the following articles.
(Note—the number of delegates for each state shall be the subject of a later examination.)
Article 12. The common assembly shall designate its own president and shall hold public meetings. The members of the high authority shall be present and answer questions which may be put to them by the common assembly.
In general meeting, the common assembly shall proceed, in the presence of the members of the high authority, to discuss the report published by the high authority and to review the latter’s activities.
Article 13. If the common assembly censures the report of the high authority by a two-thirds majority, the members of the high authority must resign in a body. They shall continue to carry on current business until they are replaced in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Article 3.
Article 14. In addition to the regular termination envisaged by Article 2, the functions of a member of the high authority may be terminated either by resignation or by a unanimous vote of the other members.
Article 15. The high authority shall provide for establishment of three consultative committees of employers, of workers and of consumers. These committees may be convened separately or jointly, on the initiative of the high authority. The high authority may establish any other consultative committees which it deems useful.1
(Note—the composition and the method of designating the members of these committees will be the subject of a later examination.)
Article 16. The seat of the high authority shall be (blank).
The high authority shall enjoy in the territory of each state party to the present treaty the juridical capacity necessary to the carrying out of its functions.
The high authority shall fix the method of recruitment and the status of the members of its personnel. The members of the high authority and its personnel shall have the status of international civil servants. They shall neither seek nor receive instructions except from the high authority. The states parties to the present treaty undertake to respect in every way the supra-national character of the high authority find of its personnel and not to seek to influence them in the exercise of their functions.
The members of the high authority and its senior officials shall receive on the territory of the signatory states the same treatment as is accorded to diplomatic representatives. Special agreements on this point shall be negotiated between the states and the high authority.
Text to be continued in subsequent telegram.
Sent Department 3080; repeated info London 862 eyes only Douglas, Frankfort 433 eyes only McCloy, Rome 234, eyes only Dunn, Brussels unnumbered eyes only Murphy, The Hague unnumbered eyes only Chapin.
- See the documentation on negotiations at Habana from November 1947 to February 1948, looking toward the establishment of an International Trade Organization (ITO), in Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. i, pp. 802 ff.↩