Pierre Uri; Economist Helped Establish European Common Market

Pierre Uri, 80, the economist who helped establish the Common Market. Uri helped write the Treaty of Paris, which gave birth in 1951 to the European Coal and Steel Community. Uri directed the group from 1952 to 1959. The market was conceived by Jean Monnet as an initial step toward European integration and contributed toward the establishment of the Common Market in 1958. Uri was an indefatigable traveler, speaker and writer. He wrote several works on Europe, including “Five-Year Plan for a Revolution” and “Thinker for Action.” Uri was a staunch backer of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, who in 1991 presented him with France’s Grand Croix of the National Order of Merit. At the award ceremony, Mitterrand described Uri as a “founder of Europe, one of those who most merit being considered an architect of this immense construction.” In Paris on Tuesday of cancer.