850.33/12–1450
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Thorp) to the Secretary of State
Subject: Current Status of the Schuman Plan Negotiations
Background:
The negotiations on the Schuman Plan are close to completion. The two or three remaining issues, which include the scope of the Plan’s provisions on cartels, and the problem of dealing with Belgium’s high-cost coal mines, may possibly be resolved in the next two or three weeks. From present indications, the Plan will be acceptable on the whole to the United States and is likely to encounter little serious opposition of the United Kingdom. After the plan is initialed, the remaining hurdles will be the ratification of the plan by the parliaments of the six countries concerned, and the waiver of conflicting most-favored-nation rights by countries outside the Plan. Parliamentary ratification promises to be a very difficult step in Germany, where the leaders of the minority SPD party already have taken a strong stand against the Plan. Ratification also may prove difficult in Belgium and possibly even in France itself, where coal and steel producing interests are sure to make their opposition felt.
Up to now, Germany has been using the bargaining power, arising out of the French Government’s desire to complete negotiations on the Plan, in three different connections.
First, Germany has been attempting to use the occasion to have the existing limitations on German steel production eliminated1 and the Ruhr Authority abolished. We have just had word from Paris that Schuman and Monnet have assured the Germans that German steel [Page 766] would have “equal status”, and that the Ruhr Authority would “disappear without difficulty”.
Second, Germany has been trying to use the Schuman Plan negotiations as a lever in her negotiations for full equality in the integrated NATO defense force. The French, who previously had attempted to condition their approval of German participation in the defense of the west upon German adherence to the Schuman Plan have abandoned this position. They have now informed the Germans that they will support full and equal participation for Germany in the European army, the creation of which will be discussed in Paris next month.
Finally, the Germans appear to be on the verge of demanding that they be relieved of the requirement to deconcentrate the Ruhr coal and steel industries, as a condition of joining the Plan. This position has not yet fully emerged, but it is becoming more prominent in comments from Frankfort and Paris.
Recommendation:
That, as the opportunity arises, in your discussions at Brussels,2 you urge the earliest possible consummation of negotiations on the Plan.
Concurrences:
ITP, EUR, GER