The first moves towards the establishment of the Union came following the end of the Second World War. In 1951 the first community was established and led to two others being founded by the end of the 50s.
Beginnings of cooperation
The Second World War from 1939 to 1945 saw an unprecedented human and economic cost which hit Europe hardest. It demonstrated the horrors of war and also of extremism.[3]
1946, war-time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke at the University of Zurich on "The tragedy of Europe"; in which he called for a United States of Europe, to be created on a regional level while strengthening the United Nations. He did however include the United Kingdom with its Commonwealth of Nations along side the United States of America and the Soviet Union in supporting this US-style federation, not inside it. He described the first step to a "USE" as a "Council of Europe". [3] In 1949 the Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg, it is primarily a UN-like body dealing with human rights issues and expanded over the years to include every European country except Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican city.[4]
With the start of the Cold War, the Treaty of Brussels was signed in 1948. It expanded upon the Dunkirk treaty which was a military pact between France and the United Kingdom who were concerned about the threat from the USSR following the communist take over in Czechoslovakia.…