The story of the European Union is one of peace. Its roots go back to WWII. Europeans wanted to ensure that never again would they be consumed by such mindless murder and destruction. Shortly after the war, Europe was divided into East and West and the Cold War started. It would last for 40 years. The nations of Western Europe founded the Council of Europe in 1949. It was the first step towards pan-European co-operation.
The EU of Six Countries
The six countries of the Council of Europe wanted to strengthen their mutual ties. On May 9 1950 Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, presented his plan for increased co-operation. In a famous speech, he outlined the basis of the EU as we know it today. The European Coal and Steel Community, (ECSC), was born and the founder members were France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The ECSC put the heavy industries of coal and steel production under the common management of these six countries. No member country would be able to manufacture arms in order to use them against other members, as had happened in the past.
In a decade marked by a Cold War between the East and the West and by the Hungarian uprising which was ruthlessly put down by the Soviet army, flushed with success, the members of the ECSC expanded their co-operation into other spheres. They signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25 1957 which founded the European Economic Community, (EEC), or "common market". The aim was the free movement of people, of goods and of services between member states.
The 60s arrived and 1961 saw the construction of the Berlin Wall. For the six countries of the EEC it was a period of economic growth. The Common Agricultural Policy, launched on the January 30 1962 provided for a common management of agricultural production so that everyone would have enough to eat. Farmers would have a proper income and certain products would even be overproduced. In a world of social revolutions, after the events of May 1968, (when students rioted across France against heavy-handed governmental social control), the EEC member states decided to take down customs barriers and for the first time open the way for free trade between them.
The First Enlargement
The 70s saw the first enlargement of the EEC. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined on January 1 1973, taking the member states to nine. Shortly afterwards, in October 1973, Israel's 6-day war against the Arabs resulted in an energy crisis and an associated economic crisis in Europe. In a gesture of solidarity, the EEC created The European Regional Development Fund, (ERDF), which aimed to transfer financial resources from rich to poor regions in order to improve roads and communications, attract investment and create jobs. Today this policy has a budget equivalent to nearly a third of the total European Union budget.
The overthrow of the Salazar regime in Portugal in 1974 and the death of Spain's General Franco in 1975 eventually opened the way to further enlargement of the EEC.
The European Parliament reached a turning point in 1979 with the very first European elections.
The EEC of Twelve Countries
The names of the Polish union Solidarnosc and its leader Lech Walesa became famous throughout Europe and indeed throughout the world following the shipyard strikes in Gdansk in the summer of 1980, but expansion towards the East would have to wait. First it was Greece's turn in 1981 to become the 10th member of the EEC and then in 1986 Spain and Portugal joined, making a European community of 12 countries.
In spite of the suppression of customs duties in 1968, there still remained barriers to free trade within the community. So the Single European Act was signed in 1986, and the last barriers to free circulation of goods within the 12-strong community were removed, creating the "single market". A year later and the Erasmus scheme was created. Since then 2 million young people have benefited from the scheme which allows them to study in other Member States.
From German reunification to Baltic disintegration
The most important date in the 80s was the November 9 1989 - the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening, for the first time in 28 years, of the frontier between East and West Germany. The two countries were subsequently reunified.
After the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, Europeans became close neighbours once more. Then in 1991 Yugoslavia imploded, first in Croatia and then in Bosnia-Herzegovina where a bloody civil war raged between Serbs, Croatians and other ethnic groups.
In the Europe of 12 countries, integration was advanced with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on February 7 1992. The EEC made a huge step forward with an agreement to establish a common currency, and common foreign and defence policies as well as reinforced co-operation in the areas of Justice and Home Affairs. The EEC officially became the European Union, (the EU). A year later the single market was put in place with the establishment of the "four freedoms": the freedom of movement of goods, of services, of people and of capital.
The Europe of 15 Countries
Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU on January 1 1995, and less than three months later, on March 26 1995, the Schengen Agreement came into force. This little village in Luxembourg gave its name to the agreement which progressively removed border controls between the signatories.
The Treaty of Amsterdam, signed on June 17 1997, aimed to reform the European Institutions, to give more weight to Europe on the world stage and to improve the use of resources to increase employment, and strengthen the rights of European citizens. At the end of the same year, European leaders decided to open enlargement negotiations with 10 Central and East European countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. However, it was only the Treaty of Nice, signed in 2000, which opened the way to further enlargement by reforming the community's voting rules, but it was not until 2007 that the enlargement was fully effective.
Further Integration
January 1 1999 was another staging post in European integration: the euro became the common currency of more than 320 million Europeans, even though the coins and notes were not introduced until January 1 2002.
The year of 2001 is marked down in history as the year of the September 11 attacks in the United States. It was a major event which forced the Member States of the EU into closer co-operation in order to fight against terrorism.
In the framework of foreign policy and security, the EU carried out peace-keeping missions in the Balkan states: first in the ex-Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and then in Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 2003. A year later, the inclusion of 10 new countries within the EU, on May 1 2004, wiped the slate clean of East and West Europe's political divisions. Out of the 12 countries who had become enlargement candidates in 1997, only Bulgaria and Romania were not considered ready to join the EU.
In an EU of 25 countries, many Europeans throught that it was time that Europe had its own constitution. Many other countries were knocking at the doors of the EU, like the ex-Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey. The latter two began membership negotiations on October 3 2005.
The French and Dutch no-votes in their referendums on the "European Constitution" forced the EU to abandon its plans , and the proposal was replaced in 2007 by the Lisbon Treaty, which retains the essence of the original institutional reforms, but in a less ambitious format. 2007 was also the year that Bulgaria and Romania finally joined the EU.
It is therefore now an EU of 27 countries which will be going to the polls to elect the European Parliament.
