Historical Overview

The idea of a United Europe is much older than the history of the European Union itself. Many years have passed and only after the Second World War was started the process of instituting what we are calling today the European Union.

Robert Schumann’s Statement from May 9, 1950, proposing the foundation of the European Coal and Steel

Robert Schuman

Community (ECSC), is considered to be the historical moment that marked the process of european integration. The goal of this Community was thwarting the possible causes for new wars in Europe by means of exercising common control over the coal and steel production by the six states (France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and Netherlands) that signed subsequently the Paris Treaty (1951) establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. Without control over steel and coal, starting a war was deemed to be impossible. The ECSC, the first European Community, was led by Jean Monnet, who is considered one of the founding fathers of EU.

In 1957, the two other European communities were created in Rome using the model of ECSC: the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).

Jean Monnet

ECSC, EEC and EURATOM are the three communities that were at the base of the current European Union. Initially, each Community had its own institutions, but in 1967 the institutional fusion took place and from that moment the European Communities are functioning sharing the same structures. The original institutions have not suffered substantial changes and can be recognized in the institutional structure of the European Union.

1989 is marked by the fall of Communism in the Eastern Europe, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union just two years later. During that period Western Europe underwent important transformations, culminating with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which mentioned for the first time, the term of the European Union. The Maastricht Treaty also introduced new forms of cooperation between the member states in such fields as Defense and Internal Affairs.

Documents useful for studying EU history:

1.	The original document of the Schuman Declaration (in French)
2.	Schuman Declaration (in Romanian)
3.	Altiero Spinelli, Il Manifesto di Ventotene (in Italian)
4.	Jean Monnet, Note de réflexion de Jean Monnet, Alger, 05.08.1943 (in French)
5.	Winston Churchill, Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech  (in English)
7.	Protocol of the Ialta Conference, February 1945 (in English)
8.	Winston Churchill, The Zurich speech - about the creation of the United States of Europe, 1946 (in English)
9.	The North Atlantic Charter, 04.04.1949 (in English)
10.	The United Nations Organization Charter (in English)
11.	Tratatul de Instituire a Comunitatii Economice Europene (Tratatul de la Roma), 25 martie 1957
12.	Tratatul de Instituire a Comunitatii pentru Energie Atomica (Tratatul Euratom), 25 martie 1957
13.	Tratatul privind Uniunea Europeana (Tratatul de la Maastricht), 7 februarie 1992
14.	Tratatul de la Amsterdam, 2 octombrie 1997
15.	Tratatul de la Nisa, 26 februarie 2001
16.	Tratatul de instituire a unei Constitutii pentru Europa, 29 octombrie 2004
17.	Tratatul de Aderare a Romaniei si Bulgariei, 25 aprilie 2005