The beginnings of European integration (1945-1956)

• The origins of the European idea (Before 1918)
• The European idea at the beginning of the 20th century (1918-1944)
• From the Six to the Nine (1957-1973)
• Overcoming the crises (1974-1984)
• The relaunch of the European idea (1985-1991)
• The birth of 'political union' (1992-2008)
• The poet Hesiod is the first to refer to the myth of Europa (-8th century BCE)
• The apogee of the Roman Empire (2th century CE)
• Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the West (800)
• The abdication of Charles V puts an end to his dream of unifying Christendom (1556)
• Johannes Althusius, the first thinker on federalism (1603)
• Coronation of Napoleon (1804)
• Saint-Simon proposes the creation of a European Parliament (1814)
• The awakening of the nations inspires Victor Hugo's speech on the United States of Europe (August 21, 1849)
• Louise Weiss and the pacifist movement (1918)
• Creation of the Pan-Europa movement (November 1922)
• The League of Nations, a platform for Europe (1922)
• The Treaty of Locarno, the first step towards Franco-German rapprochement (October 16, 1925)
• The New Order, for a humane Europe (1930)
• The European movement in the Resistance (1941)
• Winston Churchill writes a memorandum on the United States of Europe (1942)
• Speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich (September 19, 1946)
• The Hague Congress (May 7-May 10, 1948)
• Creation of the OEEC (April 16, 1948)
• The birth of NATO (April 4, 1949)
• Creation of the Council of Europe (May 5, 1949)
• The Schuman Declaration (May 9, 1950)
• Inaugural session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe (August 10, 1949)
• Signing of the Treaty of Paris instituting the ECSC (April 18, 1951)
• France rejects the EDC (August 30, 1954)
• Conference of Messina (June 1955)
• Jean Monnet announces a new stage in European integration (October 14, 1955)
• Signing of the Treaties of Rome (March 25, 1957)
• Creation of the European Social Fund (January 11, 1960)
• De Gaulle on Europe (May 15, 1962)
• Launch of the CAP (July 30, 1962)
• Signing of the Elysée Treaty (January 22, 1963)
• Signing of the treaty merging the Community executives (April 8, 1965)
• Beginning of the 'empty chair crisis' (July 1, 1965)
• De Gaulle calls for realism in European matters (December 14, 1965)
• The United Kingdom seeks to join the European Communities (January 31, 1967)
• Entry into force of the Customs Union (July 1, 1968)
• Georges Pompidou speaks of a supranational Europe (January 21, 1971)
• Entry into force of the European 'currency snake' (April 24, 1972)
• First enlargement of the Communities (January 1, 1973)
• The Paris Summit (December 9-December 10, 1974)
• The first Lomé Accords (February 28, 1975)
• Creation of the European Monetary System (July 7, 1978)
• First elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (June 10, 1979)
• Ariane, a success for European cooperation (December 24, 1979)
• Greece becomes a member of the European Communities (January 1, 1981)
• The European Council at Fontainebleau brings an end to the budget crisis (June 25-June 26, 1984)
• Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand shake hands at Verdun (September 22, 1984)
• Presentation of the White Paper by Jacques Delors (June 14, 1985)
• Enlargement of the Communities to take in Spain and Portugal (January 1, 1986)
• Signing of the Single European Act (February 17, 1986)
• Launch of the Erasmus programme (June 30, 1987)
• Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989)
• Informal European Council in Paris (November 18, 1989)
• Germany reunited within the European Communities (October 30, 1990)
• Signing of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union (February 7, 1992)
• Enlargement of the European Union to take in Austria, Finland and Sweden (1995)
• Signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam (October 2, 1997)
• Jacques Santer promises to introduce the euro (March 25, 1998)
• Inauguration of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt (June 30, 1998)
• The Franco-British summit at Saint-Malo gives fresh impetus to European defence (December 4, 1998)
• Faced with revolt from MEPs, the Santer Commission prefers to resign (March 16, 1999)
• Signing of the Treaty of Nice (February 26, 2001)
• The euro in the pockets of European consumers (January 1, 2002)
• Enlargement of the European Union to take in ten new members (May 1, 2004)
• Signing of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (October 29, 2004)
• ITER and Galileo: Europe at the forefront of science (2005)
• Bulgaria and Romania join the 25 (January 1, 2007)
• 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome (March 25, 2007)
• Signing of the Treaty of Lisbon (2007)

1945-1956

The beginnings of European integration

In 1945, Europe emerged traumatised from a bloody and destructive conflict. As a new period of international tension – the Cold War – began, some people quickly realised that only a union of the countries of Europe would enable the continent to recover its position on the world stage. It was a time for reconstruction and reconciliation. Cooperation agreements proliferated, some at the instigation of the American allies (the OEEC, NATO), some at the initiative of the Europeans themselves (the Council of Europe, the ECSC). In this period of burgeoning intellectual activity, a number of movements clashed on the means of attaining European unification: federalists, supporters of intergovernmental cooperation, functionalists, and so on. In the end, it was the gradualist, pragmatic approach advocated by Jean Monnet that would have the most striking impact, as the common management of coal and steel among the Six gave rise to the most complete form of peaceful integration the world had ever seen.

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