Paul-Henri Spaak, the Council's first Assembly president.
The European Economic Community (EEC), a common market among six countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Spaak left the Council after failing to secure a political authority within it. He then masterminded the creation of the EEC. The EEC set up a legal system that took precedence over national law and permanently limited the sovereign rights of member states. A court ruling later confirmed that Community law could override a later national law.
It shows how a push for political union was replaced by an economic community whose legal rules quietly limited what member states could decide for themselves.