On 3 March 1950, the Saarlandic Prime Minster Johannes Hoffmann and the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman signed the Conventions between France and the Saarland. These twelve conventions governed the relationship between the Saarland and France. The Saar Conventions sealed the close relationship between France and the Saarland and France's control of the Saarland's coal mines by the Régie des Mines de la Sarre.