Monnet Plan

Postwar reconstruction plan for France
This article deals with the 1946–50 plan of the immediate post war period. For the Monnet plan of 1950, see European Coal and Steel Community. Faced with the challenge of reconstruction after World War II, France implemented the Modernization and Re equipment Plan, which was designed to spur economic recovery. This plan is commonly known as the “Monnet Plan” after Jean Monnet, the chief advocate and first head of the General Planning Commission (Le Commissariat général du Plan). It set investment targets, and allocated investment funds.

France emerged from WWII severely weakened economically. It had been in a period of economic stagnation even when the war broke out Further, worker productivity was just one third of the U. S. level, chiefly due to low investment. For example, in France there was one tractor for every 200 people on the land, while in the U. S., there was one for every 43. The formal aims of the Plan were: (1) to develop national production and foreign trade, particularly in those fields where France is most favourably placed; (2) to increase productivity; (3) to ensure the full employment of manpower; (4) to raise the standard of living and to improve the environment and the conditions of national life. Ten months later, on April 3, 1948, the U. S. launched the European Recovery Program (ERP), commonly known as the Marshall Plan. ERP aid was spread over 50 months, and the Modernization and Re equipment Plan was prolonged for two years to coincide with the 1952 end date of the ERP. Prewar, France had been the world’s biggest importer of coal,

The Monnet Plan was the first plan produced by the General Planning Commission (Le Commissariat général du Plan), and the agency continued to produce a multi year plan for France until 2006. The General Planning Commission was succeeded by Centre d'Analyse Stratégique, which was replaced in 2013 by France Stratégie.