The Allied Control Council (ACC) for Germany oversaw the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany. The ACC was established by agreement of June 5, 1945, supplemented by agreement of September 20 of that same year, with its seat in Berlin. Its members were Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. Decisions could only be made by consensus. From the outset; proceedings were heavily compromised through systematic non-cooperation from the French representatives. The French had been excluded (at American insistence) from the Potsdam Conference and consequently refused to recognise any obligation for the ACC to be constrained by the Potsdam agreement. In particular, they resisted all proposals to establish common policies and institutions across Germany as a whole, and anything that they feared might lead to the emergence of an eventual unified German government. Cooperation within the ACC finally broke down completely when the Soviet representative withdrew on March 20, 1948. Until 1971, the ACC did not meet again, and the stage was set for the partition of Germany into two states.