ABSTRACT
The negotiations that led to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) were concluded by the signature of the Treaty of Paris on 18 April 1951. Ratification was completed by 25 July 1952 and from that date ‘the Six’, with their capital letter, existed as a constitutional entity. The High Authority, symbol and embryo of a supranational European executive, first met in Luxembourg City on 10 August 1952. Luxembourg was supposedly only its temporary home, shrewdly offered by the Luxembourg government until a sharp dispute over its permanent location would have been resolved. It stayed there, instead of in any of the cities principally in dispute. In calmer times, ECSC might have dominated European diplomacy. But only five days after negotiations were begun the North Korean People's Army launched an attack on South Korea more serious than the earlier incursions of both Korean states into each others' territory.
