Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western European Integration and Security, Canada, Volume VII, Part 1

1. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Elbrick) to Secretary of State Dulles⁰

January 8, 1958.

SUBJECT

• Decisions of the Foreign Ministers of the Community of Six on the membership and location of the institutions of the Common Market and EURATOM

The Foreign Ministers of the Community of Six met in Paris Monday and Tuesday.¹ They named the members of the European commissions which will direct the European Economic Community and Euratom, but postponed for six months an agreement on a permanent capital for the Community of Six. The Presidents of the three executives will be: Walter Hallstein for the European Economic Community (Common Market), Louis Armand for Euratom, and Paul Finet to replace Rene Mayer as President of the High Authority of the Coal and Steel Community. Pietro Campilli of Italy will head the European Investment Bank provided for by the Common Market Treaty. A full list of the members designated is attached (Tab A).²

The quality of the presidents and members seems to augur well for the success of these executive bodies which will now have to take the leadership of the movement for European integration. Hallstein, as you know, has been one of the Chancellor’s close collaborators and, in particular, has acted for the Chancellor in pursuing the policy of pushing for organic unity between Germany and her Western neighbors. He is a close friend of Jean Monnet, is well regarded by the French and the other members of the Community, and has proved very effective as a spokesman for the “Six” in international bodies. He should be able to give the Economic Community the kind of political leadership that it needs. Armand, who you met last year when he came with the Euratom “Wise Men”,³ is also a close collaborator of Monnet, and a very energetic and articulate administrator. Paul Finet is perhaps the ablest of the incumbent members of the High Authority, and was formerly one of the top leaders of the European and International Free Trade Unions; his designation should help to confirm the strong support which the trade unions and Socialist parties have given to the integration movement. The other members of the commissions, as far as they are known to us, appear to be also excellent choices; the Common Market Commission, in particular, will include at least three men of broad political experience as cabinet officers and should be able to give Hallstein effective support in carrying out, not only the economic but the political purposes of the Community.

In summary, the Ministers of the Six appear to have named a leadership for the integration movement which gives real promise of being able not only to carry out effectively the treaties which entered into force on January 1, but also to carry forward future development of the Communities in the direction of closer political and economic unity.

The Ministers were unable to agree on a permanent capital for the Community and postponed the decision until the middle of this year. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Six will be given some say in the final decision. However, they have apparently agreed to the principle that the institutions should all be located in one place; this is obviously desirable from the point of view of encouraging the further growth of the integration movement as well as for practical reasons. Meanwhile the institutions will begin to operate immediately, probably in Luxembourg.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 840.1901/1–858. Confidential. Drafted by Cleveland. The source text bears Elbrick’s handwritten initials and the handwritten notation: “Sec saw.”
1. January 6 and 7.
2. Not printed.
3. For a memorandum of Secretary Dulles’ conversation on February 8, 1957, in Washington with the EURATOM “Wise Men” (Louis Armand, Franz Etzel, and Francesco Giordani), see Foreign Relations, 1955–1957, vol. IV, pp. 519–522. The Wise Men had been instructed on November 16, 1956, by the Foreign Ministers of the six EURATOM countries to report on the “amount of atomic energy which can be produced in the near future in the six countries, and the means to be employed for this purpose.” Their report, entitled “A Target for EURATOM,” was submitted on May 4, 1957.