From Economic Community To Political Union: Tracing The Development Of The European Union
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 hours ago
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Arushee Bansal, Symbiosis Law School, Pune
INTRODUCTION
The European Union (hereinafter referred as EU), is the biggest experiment of political supranational governance. It is a regional integration shaping political, economic and social landscape of Europe. The EU has widely been portrayed as a sui generis political entity, that blends the features of both a federation and a confederation. The European Union (EU) came in force with the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, which also introduced the EU citizenship. It became an international legal entity with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. The EU’s origin dates back to 1948 with the Inner Six states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) as an economic community in the aftermath of World War II, focusing on coal and steel, which later evolved into a political and economic integration of 27 European nations, enclosing over 500 million citizens.
HISTORY
The idea of uniting European countries first came to notice in 754, in the Mozarabic Chronicles, then again in 1453, in Fall of Constantinople. It was further mentioned by Abbot Charles de Saint-Pierre, in 1713, as an attempt to create an economic European League of 18 states, with no internal borders. The perception of ‘United States of Europe’, was shared by Marquis de Lafayette and Tadeusz Kościuszko after the American Revolutionary War. In 1849, during a speech at International Peace Congress, the pacifist Victor Hugo used the term ‘United States of Europe’ and supported the establishment of “a supreme, sovereign senate that would serve Europe in the same capacity as the parliament serves England.”
It is very evident the idea of internationalism existed will before the 19th CE, but was only accounted as a rection to World War I. John Maynard Keynes, suggested the creation of a European customs union to aid the struggling post-war economies in 1920. In 1923, Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, found and led the Paneuropean Union Movement. He further found the European Parliamentary Union in June 1947.
