EU History

Origins

The origins of the European Union can be traced to the end of the Second World War. For centuries, the continent had been wrecked by frequent and devastating wars, whilst Germany and France had fought three times from in the period from 1870 to 1945.

The view amongst a number of influential figures post-1945 was to unite France and Germany both economically and politically so as to ensure peace between the two most powerful western European states on the continent.

With this in mind, speaking at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946, Winston Churchill said: “The first step in the recreation of the European Family must be a partnership between France and Germany… There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany”.

Churchill did not advocate a direct role for Britain in this ‘United States of Europe’: “In all this urgent work France and Germany must take the lead together. Great Britain… must be the friends and sponsors of the new Europe and must champion its right to live”.

The Communities

In 1949, Jean Monnet, head of France’s post-war economic reconstruction, recommended to Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, to put under a single authority Europe’s coal and steel production, which had been a major cause of conflict between France and Germany.

Under what became known as the Schuman Plan, in 1951 six countries (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands) signed the Treaty of Paris and set up the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The supranational body overseeing coal and steel production was the High Authority, with Monnet as its first president.

Further economic integration, championed particularly by Paul-Henri Spaak the Belgian foreign minister, came in 1957. Under the Treaty of Rome, the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) was set up, together with the European Economic Community (EEC), which paved the way for the removal of trade barriers and the creation of the ‘common market’.

In 1967 the Merger Treaty fused the institutions of the three European Communities (ECSC, EURATOM and EEC), which from then on became a single European Community organised under a single Council of Ministers and a single Commission, as well as the European Parliament.

The Parliament and expansion

The parliament was established in 1952 as the Common Assembly, headed by Spaak and with 78 members nominated by the six member states. In 1958 it was renamed the European Parliamentary Assembly. It has been known as the European Parliament since 1962, with elected representatives since 1979.

The parliament expanded as membership of the European Community grew. The original six were joined by Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1973; by Greece in 1981; by Portugal and Spain in 1986; by Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995; and by Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004. Most recently, Bulgaria and Romania became the 26th and 27th memebers on 1 January 2007. At the moment there are three Candidate Countries, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey, which may join in due course.

The Single Market

The Common Market formally became the Single Market under the Treaty on the European Union signed at Maastricht in The Netherlands in 1992. Thus, people, goods and services (not financial) were enabled unrestricted movement around the Community.

Also in 1992 it was decided to move towards economic and monetary union with a single currency managed by a European Central Bank. In 2002, twelve of the then fifteen member states adopted the Euro as currency.

Despite various levels of enthusiasm across Europe, the Community continues to attract new members and to work together evermore closely on economic, social, and, increasingly, political matters.

EU Timeline

Significant events:

1940s     |     1950s     |     1960s     |     1970s     |     1980s     |     1990s     |     2000s

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