The seventh session of the Consultative Council took place in Paris on November 7, 1949 under the chairmanship of M. Robert Schuman. Two conventions regarding social matters were signed by the five foreign ministers. The first, closely linked with the network of bilateral agreements on social security already negotiated or in the course of negotiation, would have enabled nationals of these countries to take advantage of any of these bilateral agreements, no matter in which of the five countries they resided or had resided. The benfits covered by these agreements included sickness, old age, death, maternity, industrial injuries and prescribed occupational diseases. The second convention was based on the principle that a national of any of the five countries requiring social or medical assistance, but without sufficient resources, when resident in the territory of any of the other four, would receive such assistance from the latter country on the same basis as its own nationals.
“A Mere Matter of Rock”: Organized Labour, Scientific Evidence and British Government Schemes for Compensation of Silicosis and Pneumoconiosis among Coalminers, 1926–1940