The ‘New Europe’

... The 'New Europe' The Origins of the EU Economic integration was launched in the wake of World War II, as a devastated Western Europe sought ways to rebuild its economy and prevent future wars. On May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman announced a plan, conceived by French businessman-turned-advisor, Jean Monnet. To control the forces of war, Monnet proposed pooling European coal and steel production under a common authority. The Schuman Declaration was regarded as the first step towards achieving a united Europe - an ideal that in the past had been pursued only by force. The European Union is a unique, treaty-based, institutional framework that defines and manages economic and political cooperation among its fifteen European member countries. The Union is the latest stage in a process of integration begun in the 1950s by six countries - France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg - whose leaders signed

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