ABSTRACT
In the sudden rush of proposals for supranational structures of governance in western Europe that followed hard on Schuman's proposal for a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), one heralded much difficulty in the United Kingdom's future relationship with Europe. It came from the French Minister of Agriculture, Pierre Pflimlin, and was for a common market in agricultural produce. In his talks with Plowden in 1949 over Anglo-French cooperation in the OEEC, Monnet had hoped to commit the United Kingdom to a medium-term contract to purchase planned French wheat surpluses. This scheme had been rejected. Pflimlin's proposal was in continuity with Monnet's earlier approach, but much more alarming to the British government because of its supranational implications.
