On the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1988, his native country of France honoured Monnet's memory by transferring his mortal remains to the Panthéon in Paris.
Subsequently, he travelled widely – to Canada, the United States, Scandinavia and Russia, for the family business, as well as Egypt for health reasons.
At the Paris Peace Conference, Monnet was an assistant to the French minister of commerce and industry, Étienne Clémentel, who proposed a "new economic order" based on European cooperation.
[9] Due to his experience organizing inter-Allied committees during the war, Monnet was asked to take on the job of Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Nations by French premier Georges Clemenceau and British statesman Arthur Balfour, upon the League's creation in 1919 and after Élie Halévy had declined to take the position, which was reserved for a French national.
[14] In September 1939, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier sent Monnet to London to coordinate the organization of Franco-British war supplies.
[11]: 125–126 Shortly after the invasion of France in May 1940, Monnet advocated for a Franco-British union because he believed victory was impossible if “the two countries did not act and fight as a single people and if the two nations were not completely and profoundly aware of their unity.
He would have preferred that de Gaulle work with others who were supporters, at that time, of continuing the resistance such as General Charles Noguès in North Africa.
In a letter to de Gaulle on June 23, Monnet said he had made these concerns known to British Foreign Office officials Alexander Cadogan and Robert Vansittart, as well as Churchill’s envoy Edward Spears.
Churchill invited Monnet to continue his work securing supplies from North America with the British Purchasing Commission.
[7]: 248 Convinced that America could serve as "the great arsenal of democracy", he persuaded the President to launch a massive arms production program, both as an economic stimulus and to supply the Allies with military resources.
According to Edward R. Kantowicz, Monnet was impressed by the American organizational energy and saw cooperation with the new superpower as Europe's only chance to reorganize and recover itself.
[18] While in Washington, Monnet and his family lived in a comfortable house built in 1934 at 2415 Foxhall Road NW,[19] which was later home to Adlai Stevenson III[20] and James Baker.
[23] During a meeting on 5 August of that year, Monnet declared to the Committee: "There will be no peace in Europe if the States are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty, with all that that entails in terms of prestige politics and economic protectionism.
Prosperity for the States of Europe and the social developments that must go with it will only be possible if they form a federation or a "European entity" that makes them into a common economic unit.”[24] In 1946, Monnet successfully negotiated the Blum–Byrnes agreement with the United States, which cleared France from a $2.8 billion debt (mostly World War I loans) and provided the country with an additional low-interest loan of $650 million.
[25] Faced with the challenge of reconstruction after WWII, in 1946 France implemented the Modernization and Re-equipment Plan, which was designed to spur economic recovery.
[27]: 279–303 [28]: 29–32 The Plan’s initial objectives included exceeding France’s 1929 production level by 25% in 1950, which implied an ambitious 11% annual growth rate over five years.
[11]: 233 [29] Although not all of the goals were met, the Plan has been credited with providing direction, vision, and hope to the nation, and it set France on the road to an economic miracle in the 1950s.
Schuman declared: Through the consolidation of basic production and the institution of a new High Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and the other countries that join, this proposal represents the first concrete step towards a European federation, imperative for the preservation of peace.
[34] The Paris apartment which was to become the headquarters of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe was ready to receive the furniture from our house at Bricherhof on the outskirts of Luxembourg, already packed up.
I remember coming home from a walk with Silvia one winter evening to find the house brightly lit and surrounded by cars.
Finally, Etzel pushed forward Michel Gaudet, who made the following statement: "Monsieur le Président, your legal service has the duty to inform you that you cannot leave your post.
In the early 1970s, François Fontaine was instrumental in bringing the endeavour to fruition and drafted much of the text, even as Monnet retained ultimate control.
His funeral took place in the church of Montfort-l'Amaury on 20 March 1979, with French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt both present.
[42] On 9 November 1988, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth, his ashes were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris in a ceremony attended by numerous European heads of state and governments.
It was there that Jean Monnet and his advisors, in the last days of April 1950, drew up the historic declaration that Robert Schuman used to address Europe on 9 May 1950, proposing the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community.
In the house, Robert Schuman, Walter Hallstein, Paul-Henri Spaak, Konrad Adenauer, René Pleven, Helmut Schmidt, and many others exchanged their views with Jean Monnet on Europe's common future.
The Jean Monnet Association, created in 1986 and initially chaired by Étienne Hirsch,[57] is a French non-profit that organizes about 250 conferences on European history and current events each year.
[68] Jean Monnet Chairs are teaching posts with a specialisation in European Union studies for university professors or senior lecturers.
[79] On the centenary of his birth in 1988, he was similarly chosen as class patron by the students who entered École nationale d'administration that year and graduated in 1990.
[80] The documentary includes interviews with colleagues of Monnet such as Georges Berthoin, Max Kohnstamm and Jacques-René Rabier, as well as former member of the European Court of Justice David A.O.