Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community - Title III - Economic and social provisions - Chapter 4 - Production - Article 59

1. If, after consulting the Consultative Committee, the Commission finds that the Community is confronted with a serious shortage of any or all of the products within its jurisdiction, and that the means of action provided for in Article 57 are not sufficient to deal with this, it shall bring the situation to the attention of the Council and shall, unless the Council, acting unanimously, decides otherwise, propose to it the necessary measures.

If the Commission fails to act, a Member State may bring the matter before the Council, which may, acting unanimously, recognize that the situation in question does in fact exist.

2. The Council shall, acting unanimously on a proposal from and in consultation with the Commission, establish consumption priorities and determine the allocation of the coal and steel resources of the Community to the industries within its jurisdiction, to export and to other sectors of consumption.

On the basis of the consumption priorities thus established, the Commission shall, after consulting the undertakings concerned, draw up the production programmes with which the undertakings shall be required to comply.

3. If the Council does not reach a unanimous decision on the measures referred to in paragraph 2, the Commission shall itself allocate the resources of the Community among the Member States on the basis of consumption and exports, irrespective of the place of production.

Within each of the Member States allocation of the resources assigned by the Commission shall be carried out on the responsibility of the government, provided that the deliveries scheduled to be supplied to other Member States are not affected and that the Commission is consulted concerning the portions to be allotted to export and to the operation of the coal and steel industries.

If the portion allotted by a government to export is less than the amount taken as the basis for calculating the total tonnage to be assigned to the Member State concerned, the Commission shall, to the necessary extent, at the next allocation, redivide among the Member States the resources thus made available for consumption.

If the portion allotted by a government to the operation of the coal and steel industries is similarly less and the result is a decrease in Community production of one of these, the tonnage assigned to the Member State concerned shall, at the next allocation, be reduced by the amount of the decrease in production so caused.

4. In all cases, the Commission shall be responsible for allocating equitably among undertakings the quantities assigned to the industries within its jurisdiction, on the basis of studies made jointly with undertakings and associations of undertakings.

5. Should the situation provided for in paragraph 1 of this Article arise, the Commission may, in accordance with Article 57, after consulting the Consultative Committee and with the assent of the Council, decide that restrictions on exports to third countries shall be imposed in all the Member States, or, if the Commission fails to act, the Council may, acting unanimously, so decide on a proposal from a government.

6. The Commission may end the arrangements made under this Article after consulting the Consultative Committee and the Council. It shall not do so if the Council unanimously dissents.

If the Commission fails to act, the Council may, acting unanimously, itself end the arrangements.

7. The Commission may impose upon undertakings which do not comply with decisions taken under this Article fines not exceeding twice the value of prescribed production or deliveries either not effected or diverted from their proper use.