How did the franco german alli
How did the franco-german alliHow did the Franco-German alliance promote
the idea of the European Community
and the Union ?
INTRODUCTION.
For hundreds of years, Europe has always been in internal turmoil. Maybe it's because of language barriers, religion, historical events, of differences in politics, the economy or even culture; no-one knows for sure. What we do know is that this constant bickering has led to two devestating world wars, claiming millions and millions of lives, and that, since the end of the second war, things have gone fairly well. There has not been a world war in over 50 years and co-operation between States has never been better. But what was the cause for such a dramatic change ?
Many answers may come to mind but anyone one them will have the same origin, that is the co-operation between France and West Germany. The following will try to identify how exactly did the Franco-German alliance help promote the idea of a united Europe and the Creation of the European Union (EU), by looking back at the first co-operation between the two, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), how it led to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), to eventually become the European Union.
EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY.
The man responsible for concocting this idea is a man by the name of Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister from 1948 to 1953. He announced his plan in 1950, a plan which he said was
" the first step in the realisation of a vision, a vision of a united Europe which would have Franco-German reconciliation at its heart." To put it simply, the Scuman Plan as it was called, would unite countries into an alliance in which all customs barriers against the trade of coal and steel would be abolished to create a commun market for these products, and at the same time, would improve relations between France and Germany if the latter accepts the alliance.
The choice of the coal and steel industry made sense because these two sectors were the most important economic sectors at the time, coal being the prime source of energy. This was to be more than a simple free trade agreement because the attainment of common measures in politics depended on mutual agreements between States.
In April 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of the six founding members, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, an agreement that created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), an organization that would start its operations in July 1952. The founders of the ECSC had two basic set of objectives to attain by the creation of this body, objectives that went far-beyond the industry of steel and coal.
The first ECSC objectives were evedently economic. The steady stream of inexpensive steel and coal would help rebuild economies and...
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