In 1978, Jean Monnet created the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in Lausanne and entrusted all of his archives to it.

With more than 100,000 documents already digitized in the 500 linear meters of archives, the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe is the primary source of written, iconographic and audiovisual documents on Jean Monnet. These unique documents retracing more than sixty years of active life of Jean Monnet, including thirty dedicated to European unification, are accessible to researchers and students from all over the world in the privileged environment of the Ferme de Dorigny, located in the heart of the university campus. and made available to it by the State of Vaud.

The Foundation guarantees, thanks to its ultra-modern facilities, the best preservation and security conditions for the written and audiovisual archives for which it is responsible. It also provides visitors with numerous workspaces, which enables it to respond to the growing requests for consultation of its archives.

In addition to the Jean Monnet archives, which represent around a third of its holdings, the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe now also hosts many other private holdings of personalities most often linked to the construction of Europe.

The Foundation is an independent institution recognized as being of public utility, non-partisan and non-militant. It benefits from the support of the State of Vaud, the Swiss Confederation, the City of Lausanne and the University of Lausanne.

Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament and of the European Movement International, has chaired the Foundation since January 1, 2015.

The Maison Jean Monnet, located in the small hamlet of Houjarray, near Montfort l’Amaury in the Yvelines, was where Jean Monnet lived and worked from 1945 until his death in 1979. It was the scene of decades of effort by Jean Monnet to unite Europeans. In this house, the idea of the European Coal and Steel Community and the Schuman declaration of 9 May 1950, the founding act of the European community, were conceived in particular. It has now become a museum and a place of remembrance of European construction, under the responsibility of the European Parliament.