Two weeks after the opening of the European steel market, on May 17 1953, Jean Monnet received the Charlemagne Prize and delivered a landmark speech. Read Jean Monnet’s speech in full below.

The world has changed a lot, but much of its future still depends on what happens in Europe.

There has been no peace for Europe, nor for the world, under the old conditions. European conflicts have twice forced the United States to throw its forces into battle on the continent, and at the same time brought us and the Soviet Union to the brink of destruction.

To save the precarious peaceful relations that exist in the world today and develop them into lasting peace, we need to transform the European situation by uniting Europeans. In this way, we will eliminate the threat that Europe’s divisions and weakness pose to itself and to others.

If we remain disunited as we are, Europeans will remain exposed to the initiatives of nationalist ambitions and will be driven, as in the past, to seek external guarantees to protect themselves against each other – each fearing, as in the past, the development of the others. Narrow national markets will maintain national economic rivalries and the inferiority of European production conditions. Uncertainty about Europe’s destiny will keep the world suspicious and cautious of each other. A disunited Europe would be like those regions doomed to the fate of stakes, where wars have broken out.

At present, nationalist antagonisms, misunderstandings and incomprehension between peoples, and suspicion, persist. Mystery surrounds the work of the immense Russia and the power of its new weapons.

Today, peace does not depend solely on treaties or commitments. It depends essentially on the creation of conditions which, if they do not change the nature of men, orientate their behaviour towards each other in a peaceful direction. This is one of the essential consequences of the transformation of Europe that is the object of our community.

By achieving unity, by restoring Europe’s strength, by creating new and lasting conditions, Europeans are contributing to peace. They are preventing the fatal spiral into which, if they were to remain disunited, and whatever treaties are concluded, the effects of their opposing actions and their weakness would drag them along with other peoples.

Making EUROPE means making PEACE

Aachen, May 17 1953.