EPT1.1 The formation
We are in the 1940's. World War 2 has left Europe in ruins and economically impoverished. A sentiment of “never again” was in the air as can be seen with the many movements against war and for closer cooperation in Europe. Among some politicians the potential for 'united states of Europe' was even discussed.
In 1948, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg participated in a meeting coordinated by the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity. The end of the meeting resulted in a setup for a political and economic union among all willing European nations. The union should have a consultative parliamentary assembly elected by the national parliaments. The common European glue would be the charter of human rights and a court of justice!
But, as always, there were some severe disagreements: France and Belgium wanted a real federation, but United Kingdom did not! The end result was meetings among the ministers of European countries in private and consultation from a parliamentary elected committee. Ten countries signed the initial treaty in 1949, The... Council of Europe was born.
Today Council of Europe has 47 participating countries (all European countries, Russia, some Asian former Russian countries, Turkey and Cyprus. Only European country not in the council is Belarus). It is still living strong, but as a cooperation it is far more focused on human rights and has become more focused on creating democratization of Russia and its former nations. Also the European Court of Human Rights is the court of the Council of Europe. Both are independent from EU as an institution even though many do not realize the difference!
After World War 2 the impoverished Europe needed rebuilding and while the Marshal help from USA gave economic possibilities, some of the important materials at the time, coal and steel needed a distribution to accommodate rebuilding. Instead of letting every nation rebuild for themselves, it could be advantageous to pool these resources to make them more easily available. Other reasons included the common control over the resource as a deterrent for future wars. While one among many other efforts, Robert Schumans declaration of may 9. 1950 has been considered by EU to be worth “Europe day”. The declaration calls for a pooling of European resources and not only a supranational organ, but in a future federation. The declaration was made at a meeting among France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
During 1950-1951 these countries negotiated a deal of cooperation on a supranational body to control coal and steel. The deal set up a High Authority with 9 people to supervise modernization of production, improvement of workers conditions and develop a common export policy. It was assisted by a Consultative Committee with representatives of workers, producers, dealers and consumers. It setup an assembly of 78 national representatives from the 6 parliaments, to supervise the high authority. The council was a representative from each of the governments with the power to approve or reject the harmonization of laws proposed by the high authority. Finally a court was set up to observe that the law was followed when the treaties were interpreted and implemented by the national parliaments.
The tasks of the union was to forecast production of coal and steel, provide loans or guarantee them, ensure a control of supply, remove non-competitive practices, ensure a free travel for workers in the countries and provide guidelines for tariffs with third parties.
This was the birth of... European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
The actual treaty expired in 2002 but not before shaking up European politics forever...
sources:
http://www.humanrights.dk/human rights/europe, enlightenment and rights/the european council/the history of the european council
http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/
http://www.coe.int/aboutcoe/index.asp?page=datescles
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/institutional_affairs/treaties/treaties_ecsc_en.htm
