20160115 【The European Union】

The European Union
The challenges this organization was created to solve -
and the ones it's facing now.

After World War 2 , Europe was in a shambles.

The continent had been torn apart twice by wars during the first half of the 20th century.

Everyone agreed that this kind of destruction must never happen again.

But how could it be prevented?

French foreign minister Robert Shuman thought that economic ties could bind the nation of Europe together.

The lonstanding rivalry between France and Germany would have to end if the countries' well-being depended on each other.

So in 1950, he proposed the formation of a European Coal and Steel Community.

The community comprised six nations.

They agreed to pool their production of coal and steel in order to improve their people's standard of living, and more importantly, prevent future wars.

Then in 1958, the same nations set up the European Economic Community(EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community.

These three communities were merged and became known as the European communities or EC.

Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the EEC in 1973.