 However the Benelux became a precursor and provided ground for later European integration.Robert Schuman, as Prime Minister of France 1947-8 and Foreign Minister 1948–53 gradually but completely changed the Gaullist policy in Europe which aimed at weakening Germany and permanently taking over part of its borderlands.He gained increasing support for this policy both in the French Assembly and with European public opinion but it was fiercely opposed both by Gaullists and by Communists, and inside other parties including his own.