After the war, Schuman rose to great prominence. He initially had some difficulties. In 1940 he had voted for Petain. In Petain's cabinet governing 16 June - 10 July 1940 (
Gouvernement Pétain) there were two
Sous-secrétaires d’État. Schumann was
Sous-secrétaire d’État aux Réfugiés (Under-Secretary of State for Refugees). Schuman was a parliamentarian who had voted to grant Pétain full powers. On 24 July 1945, Schuman wrote to
Charles de Gaulle to ask him to intervene. De Gaulle answered favourably, and on 15 September, Schuman regained his full civic rights, Becoming
Foreign Minister in 1948, he retained the post in different governments until early 1953. When Schuman's first government proposed the creation of a European Assembly, it made the issue a governmental matter for Europe, not merely an academic discussion or the subject of private conferences, like
The Hague Congress of the European Movements earlier in
1948. (Schuman's was one of the few governments to send active ministers.) The proposal saw life as the Council of Europe and was created within the tight schedule that Schuman had set. At the signing of its Statutes at
St James's Palace, London, on 5 May 1949, the founding states agreed to define the borders of Europe based on the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms that Schuman enunciated there. He also announced a coming
supranational union for Europe that saw light as the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and other such Communities within a union framework of common law and democracy: As Foreign Minister, he announced in September 1948 and the next year, before the
United Nations General Assembly, France's aim was to create a democratic organisation for Europe, which a post-Nazi and democratic Germany could join. In 1949 and 1950, he made a series of speeches in Europe and North America about creating a supranational European Community. The text was jointly prepared by
Paul Reuter, the legal adviser at the Foreign Ministry and his aide and
Jean Monnet and two of his team members,
Pierre Uri and
Étienne Hirsch. The French government agreed to the Schuman Declaration, which invited
West Germany and all other European countries to manage their coal and steel industries jointly and democratically in Europe's first supranational Community, with its five fundamental institutions. On 18 April 1951, six founder members signed the
Treaty of Paris, which formed the basis of the
European Coal and Steel Community. They declared that date and the corresponding democratic, supranational principles to be the 'real foundation of Europe'. Three communities have been created so far. The
Treaties of Rome (1957) created the Economic Community and the nuclear non-proliferation Community,
Euratom. Together with the intergovernmental machinery of later treaties, they eventually evolved into the
European Union. The Schuman Declaration was made on 9 May 1950 and since then, 9 May is designated to be
Europe Day. As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Schuman was instrumental in the creation of the NATO (
North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Schuman also signed the
North Atlantic Treaty for France. The defensive principles of NATO's Article 5 were also repeated in the
European Defence Community Treaty, which failed since the French National Assembly declined to vote its ratification. Schuman also supported an
Atlantic Community. ==European politics==