For more than two millennia, Europe has been a continent of different nationalities and ethnicities, and many of these different neighboring populations live in an almost perpetual conflict with one another. While the Middle Ages brought some cultural unification under the banner of Christianity, and the awareness of a European civilization was formed, events such as the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and, much later, the world wars, effectively destroyed all the claims of there being a unified Europe. However, Count Coudenhove Kalergi of Austria founded the Pan-European Movement in 1923 and brought together several political figures in the First Pan-European Congress in Vienna in 1926.
Signatory countries
The European Community has been expanded six times since the Treaty of Paris. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined in 1973 and Greece joined in 1981. Then came Portugal and Spain, followed by Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995. The fifth enlargement of 2004 included the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary , Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus. When Bulgaria and Romania arrived at the fold in 2007, they joined what was now the current form of the community, the European Union (EU). The original signatory nations of the Maastricht Treaty included Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Denmark.
Terms and results
The Maastricht Treaty grants European citizenship to the citizens of each member state. It also defines the geographical measure according to which EU citizens can travel, work and live freely to include any other member country without the need for restrictions and permits. The Maastricht Treaty also unified the monetary and foreign policies of the states of the European Union. The central banking system it established led to the creation of a common and multinational European currency: the euro.
The European Union was built around three “pillars”. The first pillar is the institutional structure of the EU and every organization involved within it. It provides for the resolution of disputes and is a standard for all nations in the areas of environmental protection, agricultural production, socialized medicine, education, transport and motorway infrastructure. The second pillar of the Treaty is the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the official agenda of the European Union’s foreign policy. It refers to areas such as trade, commercial matters, security and relations with third countries.
The third pillar of the European Union is judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters (PJCCM). It deals with the application of the law and the prevention of serious crimes such as terrorism, drugs, weapons and trafficking in human beings, crimes against minors, corruption and fraud in companies and governments within the EU. agricultural production, socialized medicine, education, transport and motorway infrastructure. The second pillar of the Treaty is the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the official agenda of the European Union’s foreign policy. It refers to areas such as trade, commercial matters, security and relations with third countries. The third pillar of the European Union is judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters (PJCCM). It deals with the application of the law and the prevention of serious crimes such as terrorism, drugs, weapons and trafficking in human beings, crimes against minors, corruption and fraud in companies and governments within the EU. agricultural production, socialized medicine, education, transport and motorway infrastructure.
Challenges and controversies
The Second World War definitively ended the European domination of the world and the Europeans came to realize many of their weaknesses. The two new superpowers of the world (United States and Soviet Union) were extremely superior to the European nations economically, politically and militarily. The United States has promoted a centralized European organization that could organize the delivery of the resources of the Marshall Plan (intended to restore and rebuild a war-torn Europe). To achieve this goal, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established in 1948, which became the first institution to promote Western European cooperation in important multilateral areas. The constitution of the
Economic meaning
The 1951 Paris Treaty established the first European Community bound by common political and economic interests. It included France, western Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which also constituted the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and allowed all these countries to pool their respective economic resources. . The foreign ministers of these countries met in Messina, Italy, in 1995, and signed the Treaties of Rome. Here they founded the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).
Historical heritage
After the reunification of Germany, Europe suddenly had a great new economic power that could undermine the nascent cooperation between member states. The collapse of the Soviet Union has contributed to the creation of several new Eastern European states. Everyone felt the need to create a European political union based on common historical traditions and the economic contingencies present. The result was the European Union: a supranational community linked by common political, economic and social interests. The EU was born with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in February 7th, 1992, in the Limburg government buildings in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
