Part 3: European Union
Historical Integration Attempts
Many attempts have been made throughout history to unify the continent of Europe by force. The Frankish empire of Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire controlled large areas of Europe for hundreds of years. Napoleon Bonaparte controlled much of the western and central mainland of Europe through conquest or alliance in the early 1800s. Hitler's Nazi Germany sought to dominate Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Following the catastrophe of the Second World War, desire for a cooperative solution to Europe's differences greatly increased. In 1943, and again in 1946, Winston Churchill called for a "kind of" United States of Europe (although not necessarily including the UK), emphasizing the need for free trade, and a stable international monetary system within the region.
In 1947 the Economic Commission for Europe was established with the goal of integrating Europe as a whole. The plan, however, quickly dissolved as the ideological divide deepened between Western Europe and the growing Soviet Union to the east. Fearing a growing Soviet threat, in 1948 the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established to promote trade and to disburse the 12.5 billion dollar Economic Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, provide by the U.S. in hopes further solidifying democracy in the region. In 1949, the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Brussels Treaty, calling for mutual assistance in time of attack and eventually paving the way for the creation of NATO. At this point the Cold War had begun, and further integration in Europe would clearly be divided between the East and West.
In 1949 the Council of Europe was established by ten Western European states. It called for common action in economic, social, cultural, scientific, and legal aims through the giving up of state sovereignty through creation of a majority vote assembly. Rifts, however, quickly emerged between British and Scandinavian functionalists, who were looking for an intergovernmentalist approach based on unanimity, while the federalists in France and the Benelux nations-- Belgium, the Netherland, and Luxembourg--sought the creation of European supra-national institutions with decisions based on majority rule. Ultimately, these differences could not be resolved and the groups of nations went their separate ways, each pursuing their own ideal of what integration should entail.
Laying the Foundation--The European Coal and Steel Community
On May 9th, 1950, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, presented a plan, drafted by his colleague, Jean Monnet, calling for the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The plan called for Germany and France to place their key industries and resources for a wartime economy under a supranational body which would function independent of the nation states. All Western European nations were invited to join the community, and on April 18th, 1951, six countries, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Germany, signed the Treaty of Paris, establishing the ECSC. A supranational institution was created in the shape of the "High Authority," which was able to make decisions on the regulation and trade of coal and steel without reference to the member states. The interests of the nation states were taken into account by a "Special Council of Ministers," representatives of the national political parties had input through a "Common Assembly," and a "Court of Justice" was set up to rule on disputes. The ECSC successfully demonstrated the feasibility of cooperative integration through supranational decision making in Europe .
WEBLINKS: Click on the following weblinks to learn about Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, and the plan for the ECSC.
Robert Schuman
http://www.robert-schuman.org/gb/robert-schuman/biographie2an.htm
Jean Monnet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Monnet
European Steel and Coal Community
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community
VIDEO: The Life of Jean Monnet: Father of Europe
Wanting the move forward on the success of the ECSC, in 1952 the European Defense Community Treaty (EDC) was proposed as way to allow Germany to contribute to a "European Army" and by 1953 a proposal to integrate and expand the ECSC and EDC into a European Political Community (EPC) had been made by functionalists who favored further integration. Ultimately, however, the EPC failed when the French assembly refused to ratify the treaty over concerns of too much supra-nationalism too soon, resistance to German re-armament, and the belief that any European army required British participation.
The European Economic Community
Seeking a more pragmatic approach, in 1955 the Benelux nations proposed a community based on economic, not political, objectives. This call for a European Economic Community (EEC) was realized on March 25, 1957 , when the member of the ECSC signed the Treaty of Rome. From the outset, it was an ambitious plan, calling for creation of a common market between the member states. Article 3 of the Treaty clearly spells out the objectives of the EEC. It reads (in paraphrase):
3a Eliminate internal barriers to trade among the members.
3b Establish a common external tariff against non-members.
3c Eliminate barriers to the flow of factors of production (including labor).
3h Harmonize member state laws necessary to carry out 3abc.
3f Establish oversight institutions to ensure competition among member is not distorted.
3d Establish a common agriculture policy among the members.
3e Establish a common transportation policy among the members.
3i Create a European Social Fund (ESF).
3j Create a European Investment Bank (EIB).
The EEC also called for the continuation and expansion of the supranational system of governance established by the ECSC. The governing institutions included a Commission (equivalent to the ECSC High Authority), a Council of Ministers, an Assembly or Parliament, and a Court of Justice, along with numerous smaller programs.
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 ***TIP BOX:
The Institution of the EU
• The European Commission is the executive of the European Union. Its primary roles are to propose legislation and to carry it out. The Commission is fully independent, and is not permitted to take instructions from the governments of their member state.
• The Council of the European Union (often, unofficially, still referred to as the Council of Ministers) forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the community. It contains ministers of the governments of each of the member-states.
• The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union. It is directly elected by the citizens of the member states and has legislative power.
• The European Court of Justice ensures that law and legislation of the European Union is interpreted and applied in the same way in each member state.
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