The History Of The European Union

In this Assignment I want to make clear and visible the red line in the History of the European Union, I am not going to make a complete overview of all the treaties and institutions. The Idea of the of a European Union and its development from its beginnings till today should be explained here. The European Union as it exists today is the result of a development that started after the second World War; but even before the idea of a Unity among the States of Europe existed, even when it was only popular among philosophers and visionaries. In the Years after the first World War this Idea became more and more popular, one of the main goals of this time was to prevent a further war in Europe. But the history took a different way, instead of forming a Union, or at least a partnership among the European States during the thirties the nationalism the idea of a powerful, strong national state was followed in many European States. A very good example for this is the Initiative of the French foreign minister Briand who spoke for a federal Union of Europe in the League of the Nations, but his ideas where turned down in 1929. [1] During the second World War the vision of a new Europe that would worked together was developed from national resistance movements; two of the most important people in this context are Altiero Spinelli, the Italian federalist, and Jean Monnet. [2] Directly after the second World War many people in the United State of America believed, that a strong, united Europe was necessary to prevent a further war; the economical help the USA gave in the background hat the idea, that the United States of Europe could develop, if from the beginning the reconstruction of the destroyed Europe was not limited to some countries. [3] Especially after the first conflict in the Alliance of the Winners became clear, and the partnership between the western Allies and the Soviet Union started to vanish, it became clear that Germany was one of a very great strategic importance to stop the Communism in Europe; if Germany would become a communist state, most certainly the rest of Europe would follow. Out of this reason plans like the Morgenthau - Plan were replaced by direct economical help. In 1947 the American President Harry Truman said in his famous speech in Fulton, that the USA would help all states which were in danger of the Soviet Union, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs George Marshall spoke at the Harvard University of a Program to rebuild Europe. [4] The first direct step towards the European Union was taken in 1948, as on initiative of Winston Churchill European politics like Adenauer, de Gasperi and Schuman gathered on a European Congress in Den - Haag and developed ideas for the political and economical partnership of the European states. On the 5th of May 1949 the European Council was founded by Great Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden; even if ...