The European Union is a constantly evolving economic and political organisation whose entirely

novel characteristics have caused considerable debate as to its legal nature. Its complex institutional
structure and decision-making methods mean that it cannot be classified in any particular category of
international organisation. Applying a combination of coordination and the sharing of governmental
powers, the European Union is nothing like a traditional organisation or a federal state and therefore
remains a ‘new political form’.The European Union has developed an internal single market through
a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states and also acts in a wide range of policy
areas where its action is beneficial to the Member States. There are now 28 member states that are
located primarily in Europe and 6 candidates to the European Union.
The European Union as we know it started its journey over half a century ago. Visionary leaders came
together to create economic and political stability to ensure long term peace in Europe. From then on,
many others have followed in their footsteps, striving to build on this vision through successive
treaties.

The Second World War from 1939 to 1945 saw an unprecedented human and economic cost, in
which Europe was affected particularly severely through the totality of modern warfare and large
scale massacres such as the Holocaust. Once again, there was a widespread desire amongst European
governments to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war giving the world nuclear
weapons and two ideologically opposed superpowers.
In 1946, war-time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke at the University of Zurich on
"The tragedy of Europe"; in which he called for a "United States of Europe", not including the UK,
to be created on a regional level while strengthening the United Nations. He described the first step
to a "United States of Europe" as a "Council of Europe". London would, in 1949, be the location for
the signing of the Treaty of London, establishing the separate entity of the Council of Europe.
In 1948, the Congress of Europe was convened in the Hague, under Winston Churchill's
chairmanship, by the European unification movements. It was the first time all the movements had
come together under one roof and attracted a myriad of statesmen including many who would later
become known as founding fathers of the European Union. The congress discussed the formation of
a new Council of Europe and led to the establishment of the European Movement and the College of
Europe, however it exposed a division between unionist (opposed to a loss of sovereignty) and
federalist (desiring a federal Europe) supporters. This unionist-federalist divide was reflected in the
establishment of the Council of Europe in 1949. The Council was designed with two main political
bodies, one composed of governments, the other of national members of parliament. Based
in Strasbourg, it is an organisation dealing with democracy and human rights issues (today covering
nearly every European state).
It is important to mention that in 1948 the United States gave over $13 billion (nearly $140 billion
in 2017 dollars) in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of
World War II. The initiative was named after United States Secretary of State George Marshall.The
Marshall plan was in operation for four years beginning on April 8, 1948. The goals of the United
States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernise industry, improve European
prosperity, and prevent the spread of Communism. The Marshall Plan required a lessening of
interstate barriers, a dropping of many regulations, and encouraged an increase in productivity, trade
union membership, as well as the adoption of modern business procedures. In addition to this,
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, shortly called OECD was
found to help administer the Marshall Plan.
With the start of the Cold War, the Treaty of Brussels was signed in 1948. It expanded upon the
Dunkirk Treaty which was a military pact between France and the United Kingdom who were
concerned about the threat from the USSR following the communist take over in Czechoslovakia.
The new treaty included the Benelux countries and was to promote cooperation not only in the
military matters but in economic, social and cultural spheres. These roles however were rapidly taken
over by other organisations.

However the signatories of the Brussels treaty quickly realised their common defence was not enough
against the Soviets.. Hence in 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was created. NATO
constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in
response to an attack by any external party. The members agreed that an armed attack against any
one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all.
Consequently, they agreed that, if an armed attack occurred, each of them, in exercise of the right of
individual or collective self-defence, would assist the member being attacked, taking such action as
it deemed necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the
North Atlantic area. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an
aggressor. Although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which
they do so. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which clearly states that the
response will be military in nature.

After World War II, an important development in European integration was the creation of
the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC, formally established by the Treaty of Paris
in 1951. The treaty was signed by Belgium, France, Western Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and
Luxembourg, who are also the founding states of what now is the European Union. The idea behind
the creation of the coal and steel community was to integrate the coal and steel industries of the
participating states, and notably of two former core enemies, Germany and France.

The project was initiated on the basic of an important contributions by politicians such as Robert
Schuman, Jean Monnet, and the first Chancellor of Germany after World War II,
Konrad Adenauer. In fact, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, presented the plans for this
coal and steel community on the 9th of May 1950 in the Schuman Declaration. Here’s a short passage
from this declaration.

“The pooling of coal and steel production will change the destinies of those regions which have
long been devoted to the manufacture of munitions war, of which they have been the most
constant victims.”

You can see that the core idea was to move forward after World War II, and to start creating the
foundations for what today is the European Union.
Meanwhile, the desire to integrate the Federal Republic of Germany into the emerging security
structures prompted France, in October 1950, to propose the creation of a European Army which
would operate within the framework of the Alliance. This proposal led to the signature, in May 1952,
of the Treaty setting up a European Defence Community (EDC) in which Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany were due to participate
[excluding the United Kingdom]. However, in August 1954 the French National Assembly refused
to ratify the Treaty.
The European Political Community (EPC) was proposed in 1952 as a combination of the existing
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the proposed European Defence Community
(EDC). The European Political Community project failed in 1954 when it became clear that the
European Defence Community would not be ratified by the French national assembly, which feared
that the project entailed an unacceptable loss of national sovereignty. As a result, the European
Political Community idea had to be abandoned.
The failure of the EDC meant that an alternative way had to be found to integrate the Federal
Republic of Germany into the Western security system. At a special Conference convened in London
in September 1954 and attended by the Brussels Treaty powers, the United States, Canada, the
Federal Republic of Germany and Italy, it was decided to invite the latter two countries to join the
Brussels Treaty. The conclusions of the conference were formalised by the Paris Agreements, signed
in October of that year, which amended the Brussels Treaty, created Western European Union
(WEU) as a new international organisation and provided for the Federal Republic of Germany and
Italy to join.

The Messina Conference, held from 1 to 3 June 1955 at the Italian city of Messina, Sicily, was the
conference of the foreign ministers of the six member states of the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC) that would lead to the creation of the European Economic Community in 1958.
The Foreign Ministers of the ECSC had to meet in order to nominate a member of the High Authority
of the ECSC and to appoint its new President and Vice-Presidents. The meeting also included
consideration of the action programme to relaunch European integration.

In the final communiqué of the Conference, the Six stated that the moment had come ‘to go a step
further towards the construction of Europe […] first of all […] in the economic field’ and that ‘the
further progress must be towards the setting up of a united Europe by the development of common
institutions, the gradual merging of national economies, the creation of a common market and the
harmonisation of their social policies’. They also agreed that the aim of their work in the field of
economic policy was to set up a common European market, free from all customs duties and all
quantitative restrictions.

That was not all, however, for the Messina Resolution also tackled the delicate area of nuclear
energy. In effect, the six Ministers recognised that the development of nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes would open up prospects of a new industrial revolution. They also considered it essential
to consider creating a common organisation, which would have the responsibility and the facilities
for ensuring the peaceful development of nuclear energy.

The conference would lead to the Treaties of Rome in 1957 and the formation of the European
Economic Community and Euratom in 1958.

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (TEEC),
is an international agreement that brought about the creation of the European Economic Community
(EEC), the best-known of the European Communities (EC) and European Atomic Energy
Community, shortly called Euratom. It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany and came into force on 1 January 1958. It remains
one of the two most important treaties in the modern-day European Union (EU).

Belgium holds the world record for the longest time a democracy has ever gone on without a government.
During the 589 days in which the Flemish and Walloons were unable to agree on matters of policy and form
a government, the country‘s daily affairs were addressed by a former prime minister.