Attempts to unify the disparate nations of Europe precede the modern nation-states and have occurred repeatedly throughout the history of Continental Europe since the collapse of the Mediterranean-centred Roman Empire. Europe’s heterogeneous collection of languages and cultures made attempts based on dynastic rights, or enforced through military occupation of unwilling nations, unstable and doomed to failure.

By the end of the second world war, a new impetus for the founding of (what was later to become) the European Union was the desire to rebuild Europe after the disastrous events of World War II, and to prevent Europe from ever again falling victim to the scourge of war. In order to do this, many supported the idea of forming some form of European federation or government. Winston Churchill gave a speech at the University of Zürich on 19 September 1946 calling for a “United States of Europe,” similar to the United States of America. The immediate result of this speech was the forming of the Council of Europe in 1949. The Council of Europe however was (and still remains) a rather restricted organisation, like a regional equivalent of the United Nations (though it has developed some powers in the area of human rights, through the European Court of Human Rights.)

The European Union grew out of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was founded in 1951, by the six founding members: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the Benelux countries) and (West) Germany, France and Italy. Its purpose was to pool the steel and coal resources of the member states, thus preventing another European war. It was in fulfilment of a plan developed by a French civil servant Jean Monnet, publicised by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman. On 09 May 1950, Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organised Europe stating that it was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the “Schuman declaration”, is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union, which later chose to celebrate May 9 as Europe Day. The British were invited to participate in it, but refused on grounds of national sovereignty; thus the six went ahead alone.

The ECSC was followed by attempts, by the same member-states, to found a European Defence Community (EDC) and a European Political Community (EPC). The purpose of this was to establish a common European army, under joint control, so that West Germany could be safely permitted to rearm and help counter the Soviet threat. The EPC was to establish a federation of European states. However, the French National Assembly refused to ratify the EDC treaty, which led to its abandonment. After the failure of the EDC treaty, the EPC was quietly shelved. The idea of both institutions can be seen to live on, in a watered down form, in later developments, such as European Political Co-operation (also called EPC), the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) pillar established by the Maastricht treaty, and the European Rapid Reaction Force currently in formation.

Following the failure of the EDC and EPC, the six founding members tried again at furthering their integration, and founded the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The purpose of the EEC was to establish a customs union among the six founding members, based on the “four freedoms”: freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and people. Euratom was to pool the non-military nuclear resources of the states. The EEC was by far the most important of the three communities, and known informally as the Common Market. It was established by the Treaty of Rome of 1957 and implemented on 01 January 1958.

The growth of these European Communities into what is currently the European Union can be said to consist of two parallel processes—first their structural evolution and institutional change into a tighter bloc with more competences given to the supranational level, which can be called the process of European integration or the deepening of the Union, and the other is the enlargement of the European Communities—later called European Union or EU after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union) that was signed on 07 February 1992 in Maastricht between members of the European Community and entered into force on 01 November 1993 under the Delors Commission—from 6 to 25 member states, which is also called the widening of the Union.

(Text Source and Copyright: European Union and Wikipedia)