An Idea Whose Time Had Come

The EU was born in a time when that union was necessary for those nations' survival. After the devastation of World War II, much of the continent lay in ruins. In order to rebuild a viable political and economic infrastructure, many Europeans realized cooperation was vital.

In 1950, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman (who was imprisoned by the Gestapo during the war) came up with a plan in which France and Germany and any other European countries that wished to join would unite their coal and steel production.

The outcome of Schuman's proposal was the European Coal and Steel Community, whose initial member nations included France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and tiny Luxembourg.

The European Economic Community (EEC) had been founded in 1957-58 to oversee the economic integration of the nations of western Europe. In 1967 the EEC joined together with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community to form the European Communities, or EC (the plural was dropped from the name in the 1980s). The European Union is made up of the EC and various other related institutions.

Today, the European Union (EU) includes 15 European member states. Adding to the original six, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland joined in 1973; Greece in 1981; Spain and Portugal in 1985 and Austria, Finland and Sweden were included in the last wave in 1995. Now the EU is working on the membership applications of more Eastern European countries to enter. Among them are Poland, Slovenia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Hungary.

There are five institutions involved in running the European Union: the European Parliament (elected by the peoples of the Member States), the Council (representing the governments of the Member States), the Commission (the executive and the body having the right to initiate legislation), the Court of Justice (ensuring compliance with the law), the Court of Auditors (responsible for auditing the accounts).

These institutions are supported by other bodies: the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions (advisory bodies which help to ensure that the positions of the EU's various economic and social categories and regions respectively are taken into account), the European Ombudsman (dealing with complaints from citizens at the European level), the European Investment Bank (EU financial institution) and the European Central Bank (responsible for monetary policy in the euro-area).