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Green Plans in Action: European Union: History (Short Form)
After World War II, the people of Europe recognized the necessity of European integration for a free, fair, and prosperous continent built on peace. In 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchhill stated that, "...We must build a kind of United States of Europe," echoing the call by French politician Edouard Herriot a decade earlier. Today's EU is the result of much collaborative effort and concrete achievements. Ground rules for the European Union were set through a series of treaties:
The first step was taken when Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands ("The Six") set up an integration of French and German coal and steel industries under joint control. They then built the European Economic Community (EEC) based on a common market. In the 1960's, customs duties between The Six were removed and common policies on trade and agriculture were enacted. Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined in 1973. At this time the EEC introduced new social, regional, and environmental policies. The introduction of the European Monetary System (EMS) in 1979 helped stabilize exchange rates and maintain solidarity. Greece joined the EEC in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986. Structural programs were introduced to reduce the economic development gap between the 12 member states. The EEC also began to play a more prominent role by signing a series of conventions on aid and trade with countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. The founding treaties were subsequently amended, which forged strong legal ties between EU member states, and rights to EU citizens. These include:
The collapse of Communism and fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to a reunified Germany, and democracy for the countries of central and eastern Europe. New European dynamism and the continent's changing geopolitics led to Austria, Finland, and Sweden joining in 1995. Challenges of globalization, new technologies, and the Internet explosion brought profound economic changes along with social disruption, unemployment, rising costs of pensions, and culture shock, which led to the Lisbon Strategy of 2000. This comprehensive strategy for modernizing the EU's economy included opening up all sectors of the economy to competition, innovation, business investment, and modernizing education systems to meet the needs of the information society. The EU 15 had just grown to encompass its new size when another 12 candidate countries requested accession to the Union. Following a bitter debate among large and small countries for a re-weighting of vote in the Council, an agreement was reached in the Treaty of Nice, 2001, paving the way for the next historical step, the fifth and greatest enlargement of the Union. In 2004, ten candidate countries joined the EU - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - the EU 25 was born. On January 1, 2007 the EU welcomed Bulgaria and Romania, expanding to the EU 27. There was concern that enlargement on this scale not turn the EU into a mere free trade area, and that this continent-wide union of nations work together effectively and efficiently. This led to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE), commonly referred to as the European Constitution, being developed and agreed upon by the European Council in 2004; however, France and the Netherlands rejected the European Constitution in referenda and the TCE has yet to be revised, ratified and come into force. The EU 27 includes 490 million people and may expand further as the European Council has decided to move ahead with possible membership of Croatia and Turkey. Questions remain about where to draw the ultimate boundaries of the European Union. |
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