The Big Market

The dream of a European Union, almost as old as Europe itself, came a little closer to reality last week--close enough to have a leader (France's Jean Monnet), an address (Avenue de la Liberte, Luxembourg) and a telephone number: Luxembourg 8841.

Six months to the day after the European Coal-Steel Community treaty (Schuman Plan) was signed and sealed, its six member nations* this week prepared to surrender control of their coal industries to a supranational cabinet: the nine-man High Authority. Europe's scrap-iron trade will be handed over in March, and its steel industry in April.

Headed by dynamic Jean Monnet, father of the Schuman Plan, the High Authority will run an industrial empire, capable of producing 265 million tons of coal and 46 million tons of steel each year. "We have the power ..." says Monnet. "We do not have to consult anybody."

Monnet's Europe Inc. hopes to escape from the "jungle of restrictions"--tariffs, quotas, production subsidies, price fixing and discriminatory freight rates--that has choked Europe's enterprise for centuries. Eventually, Italian householders should be able to buy Ruhr coal as easily--and almost as cheaply--as if it were mined in their own backyard; Dutch businessmen will get competitive bids from French and German, as well as Dutch, manufacturers. Europe's industrialists, glows Monnet, already "are discovering the big market. They think it is wonderful."

Monnet is already looking even further ahead. "The committee for a common market," says he, "represents the first European Parliament and the High Authority the first European executive."

*France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg.

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