History of the european union

• Author: Dan Vataman
• Position: Lecturer, Ph.D., 'Gheoghe Cristea' University
• Pages: 107-137

Mihai Adrian Hotca • Radu Slavoiu

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LESIJ NO. XVII, VOL. 2/2010

HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Dan V<t<man*

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate how the project of the ‘European Union’ evolved both in the

interwar period and in the years following the Second World War, focusing on promoters of the idea

of federal Europe who attempted to find the best ways for building a suitable European Community

development. The establishment of three European Communities in the 50`s, although they were

mainly orientated economically also involved political cooperation, thus contributing to a new

federal vision. Evolution of the European Communities has been marked by the widening of their

accession of new members and by the review of the institutive treaties in order to speed and flexibly

achieve those objectives. Given the constant changing of modern world, the European leaders had to

agree on new rules that would take into account political, economic and social changes, while also

meeting the aspirations and hopes of the Europeans. Signing the Lisbon Treaty was the recognition

that the EU needs to modernize and to have effective and consistent tools, not only adapted to the

functioning of a Union extended to 27 countries, but also to the rapid changes of the present day

world. The Lisbon Treaty clearly defined objectives and values of the European Union on peace,

democracy, human rights, justice, equality, rule of law durability and also set up a stable institutional

framework which gives the ability to obtain better results closer to expectations of European citizens.

Keywords

European Community, European Union, the Community treaties, accession, modernization,

reform treaty.

1. Background of united Europe idea

The idea of a united Europe is old and deeply rooted in the history of European continent,

these taking different forms over the passage of time. According to historian Jean-Baptiste

Duroselle, over time were tested four types of relevant projects respectively for unity by force,

unity as a principle, unity in diversity and unity through mutual agreement, some of them

overlapping at times [1].

Greek antiquity has created the first forms of unity and cooperation, when they generated

the League of Delos [2] and the League of Peloponnese [3], both political creations having the

form of confederation. After their disappearance, the new power of Rome, based on a policy of

continuous expansion, managed to create the largest and most compact empire of antiquity, one of

the most consistent and durable state formations in human history [4]. The Roman model would be

for many centuries a target in terms of recovery, albeit partial, of the European continental unity,

temporarily fulfilled by the emperors Charlemagne [5] or Otto I [6].

Another form of continental unity was Christian. If along with the Edict of Milan (313 AD)

Christianity became a “religio licita” equal in rights with other religions of the Roman Empire, the

Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD) made it the state mandatory religion for all Empire subjects. Thus

Christianity has achieved a synthesis of European spirituality which evolved into the idea of unity,

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* Lecturer, Ph.D., "Gheoghe Cristea" University, e-mail: danvataman@yahoo.com.

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which will continue to be supported and promoted even after the Great Schism [7] in 1054, the

church operating as the first pan-European structure.

In the context of affirmation of national states it was felt the need for a stronger bond than

religion to unite European countries. Thus, from the eighteenth century it began to shape the idea

of formulation of new projects of peace and unity in Europe through its radical reorganization.

Examples would be "The design to make permanent peace in Europe” from 1713, belonging to the

abbot of Saint-Piere [8]," Plan of a universal and eternal peace "by Jeremy Bentham [9] or the idea

of "European Republic" by JJ Rousseau [10].

Another project known as The philosophical project of permanent peace (Friede Zum

Ewigen) formulated in 1795 by the great philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), where he

developed the idea of an international pact designed to eliminate war forever in peoples lives. The

means for this purpose was the termination of the states illegal status (which represented the main

source of war) and the establishment of a new type of international society, a "nation state" of

federative type, to ensure security and protection for all countries regardless of their size. This

society should have been achieved progressively, starting from a strong core, provided by the

nation with a republican state system, extending itself to the continental level and then ultimately

to the entire world. Until this goal would have materialized, he wanted to have the federal alliance

between the confederate states to ensure the exclusion of war and abuse of any kind. Even if the

project did not include a specific institutional breakdown, with regard to the functioning of the

federal system envisaged, it nevertheless marks a milestone in the curdling of a unitary concept

that includes both ideals of pacifism, liberalism and federalism, using the formula of a free

federation of states with Republican constitutional regime and based on international law, with

mutual guarantee of rights.

Likewise have expressed their opinions other illustrious personalities: Alphonse de Lamartine

[11] who launched Manifesto to Europe, and Victor Hugo [12] a Call for United States of Europe

(1851). Later, Victor Hugo said that "Europe needs a European nationality," and in a message to the

Peace Congress in Lugano, he wrote: "Surely we will have this formidable European republic,. We will

have these United States of Europe that will crown the ancient world "[13].

But this dream was shattered by the First World War (also known as the Great War), which

destroyed internationalist pacifism illusions and hopes, the war effects being beyond the most

pessimistic projections [14].

Thus, almost one hundred years after the Napoleonic wars, which devastated for many years

the old continent, the Great War left Europe in ruins, with significant casualties, as well as severe

economic and social problems. The desire of states to cooperate to prevent recurrence of a disaster

of the magnitude of World War I, made the Paris Peace Conference (held from January 18, 1919 to

June 21, 1920) to decide the establishment of the League of Nations [15], whose basic principles

have been formulated in the plenary session of the Conference on January 25, 1919, showing that:

"It is essential for maintaining global status that the associated nations desire, to create a League

of Nations, a body of international cooperation which will ensure international obligations and

provide safeguards against war" [16].

Starting from the new European geopolitical realities and from the goals of the League of

Nations, the problem of finding new forms of organization of the European continent was repeated

in several projects that concerned not only the intellectual elite of the time, but also the politicians.

But the idea of a united Europe can not be imposed easily, it had to struggle with the fear of nation

states (especially those arising from the peace treaty) not to be swallowed by a super state led by a

great power, thus reenacting the prewar situation [17].

Four more years had to pass until Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi [18] began to develop

his project which gave rise to the Pan-Europe movement. In 1922, in Vienna, he published a

manifesto with a title "Europe's problem is summed up in two words: unification or collapse” and in