The History of European Integration

Very few states today are so similar culturally that the culture is shared with the state. Europe’s prominent nation-states have developed into diverse societies, their nations defined more by a “national spirit” and emotional commitment than by cultural or ethnic homogeneity.

Firstly, it is going to look at how post-war integration started through the prevention of war and to create peace throughout the European States. Secondly this essay will discuss the economic changes and influence it had on creating a political union. Then it will discuss how this created political unity along with how it affected integration and finally created the European Union. While lastly coming to a final conclusion as to what motivated integration after the war.

Europe now, for the first time in modern history, is a partnership sharing common values and a commitment to harmony and cooperation. The dream of European integration, shared by the United States, is now being realized, leaving behind us the wasteful era of wars, hostility, and inequalities. We are on the road to a Europe enjoying a unity and

The European Economic Community was an organization started in 1957 by France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg, in post War World II torn European. This organization was a union between the Steal and Coal Community and The European Atomic Energy Community. The goal of the organization, heavily influenced by John Monnet one of its founders and National Liberation Committee member at the time, was to build a stronger cohesive Europe through collaboration and economic ties to bring mutual prosperity. This organization and its ideals developed into the well know European Union of today, that currently sits with 28 members. However, one controversial possible membership has increased in importance over the years.

The European Union (EU), since the initial foundation in 1952 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and throughout periods of development, has been considered one of the most advanced forms of regional integration. It, based on numerous treaties and resolutions, has strived to promote values such as peace, cooperation or democracy, and in 2012 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having “contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe” (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Despite its struggle for promoting democracy, the EU itself has long experienced scholarly criticisms that it suffers the democratic deficit, from which its democratic legitimacy is undermined by observable problems in

If considering the European last decades, it is undeniable that, although it still represents one of the largest economies in the world, its role of trustworthy political integrated community has been deeply undermined because of its inability to face external shocks mostly due to its incapacity to deal with itself. It is therefore envisaged for the European Union the mandatory duty to rediscover itself and to make the world aware of its potential.

The EU has been working on consolidating a European identity to strengthen the scope of their influence. Some scholars think that the EU has a controversy of identity between the identity of the nations and the European identity. They want to define and establish the concept of the “People of Europe (Council 1987, 22).” This has been a task that many political systems have tried to accomplish through history. A common way of creating identities is through social or cultural processes. Some nations created folkloric tales about their creation, others created a national anthem, and others enforced a national identity through their education.

Europe was a politically and fragile continent after the Second World War that claimed millions of lives. It is in that background, that the first steps to European integration were taken with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The celebrated Schuman Plan, laid the foundation for the first real supra-national economy in the world, that is, the ECSC. The European integration continued through the decades with the establishment of the European Economic Community (ECC) and the European Union (EU). In the recent period, the EU has come under intense questioning with the economic crisis in Europe starting 2007. The recent Brexit vote has put further questions on the future of the EU. This essay considers the process of European integration through the decades and also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the union.

The European Union is set up with the aim of ending the wars between neighbors, which culminated in the Second World War. In particular France and Germany who had be at war with other 3 times in less than 3 decades. As of 1950, the European Coal and Steel Community begin to unite European countries economically and politically in order to secure lasting peace. The six founding countries are Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The 1950s are dominated by a cold war between east and west. Protests in Hungary against the Communist regime are put down by Soviet tanks in 1956. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community (EEC), or ‘Common Market’.

The establishment of the European Union (EU) has its foundations of integration belonging to an economic community: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) 1950.1 There has been a cycle of support, peaking in the 1990 at 71% and the lowest of 48% in 2004, as measured by the Eurobarometer 2. There is a clear divide between people who support the EU and Eurosceptics. Support for the EU can be

Besides creating a third block between the United States and the Soviet Union, European cooperation brought a possible solution to the German question. Central to European integration, according to the founding fathers, was creating a political identity over an economic one. But, it took until the 1970’s to establish a formal political forum that connected European nations together, almost twenty years after the creation of the ECSC. Monnet argues that efforts for political cooperation failed before the 1970’s, naming the European Defense Community (EDC) as an example. The EDC was a response to deal with the possible German rearmament in the

The roots of the European Union can be traced back to the early 1950’s when a small number of countries made a decision to join together as a way to resolve any potential conflict nurture economic growth and common values across the continent. There was a desire to promote common values and membership was opened to all European countries. Since the inception the number of members has grown from a founding six countries to what we now know as the modern day EU with a current total of 28 countries with a further 8 countries under application review. In 1992, what was then a group of twelve countries, joined together to form the Customs Community Code which was eventually introduced in January 1993. The code effectively merged the individual customs regulations in to a single customs union.

People have created unions many times but not all of them were successful, specifically when we consider alliances among number of countries with different economics, political systems and culture. For instance, last century brought both the biggest collapse and the most promising union in the modern history. Although U.S.S.R has disappeared from geographical maps, some of its members joined another alliance. The European Union (EU) is an economic and political partnership that united 28 countries on the European part of Eurasia and represents a unique form of cooperation among members today.

Karen A. Mingst in her book "Essentials of International Relations" gives a definition "European Union (EU) is a union of twenty-five European States, formerly the European Economic Community; designed originally during the 1950s for economic integration, but since expanded into a closer political and economic union."1 In 1951, the European Union initially called the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) formed as a pact between six countries (Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy and the Netherlands), in order to obtain economic and political corporation. Originally concerned with coal and steel, the states hoped to ensure a serene outlook for Europe.2 The European Union has expanded to include a wide range of

One of the most remarkable successes of the European Union is ensuring peace and stability is maintained in Europe and other parts of the world. Prior to the formation of the union, European nations experience disharmony related to both World War I and II. The first step towards peace building was the formation of European Coal and Steel Community. Since then, the union has formulated several peace policies with the aim of ensuring peace thrive amongst members and their associates.