ECSC financial report for the year 1967

Abstract

This financial report relates to the calendar year 1967, the fifteenth year of the European Coal and Steel Community's financial operations. The year was notable for the entry into force of the Treaty, signed on April 8, 1965 and subsequently ratified by the six Member States, setting up a single Council and Commission for the Communities. Under the terms of Article 9 of this Treaty, the single Commission replaces the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community and the Commis-sions of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. This single Commission has inherited the powers vested in the former bodies by the Treaties of Paris and Rome, with each of the three Communities remaining a separate entity, as before the entry into force of the Treaty of April 8, 1965. For the sake of simplicity, this report refers only -to the Commission of the European Communities ("the Commission") unless the name "High Autority" has to be used. Capital expenditures in the coal and steel industries over the last year can as yet only be estimated on the basis of the forecasts submitted by E.C.S.C. enter-prises on January 1, 1967, in connection with the survey for 1967. (1) According to these forecasts, about 250 million units of account should have been invested in the coal sector (as compared to 245 million in 1966) and 17 million in iron-ore mining (16 million in 1966). Experience shows, however, that the amounts estimated for these two sectors at the beginning of the year are actually not fulfilled by more than 85 or 900fo. Real capital expenditures in 1967 may, therefore, be put at something like 15°/o below the forecast.