→ The concretization of a European idea
—Winston Churchill’s speech (“We must erect something like the United States of Europe” in September 1946, Coudenhove-Kalergi launches the European Parliamentary Union, Hague Congress in 1948
—creation of the OEEC following the Marshall Plan in 1948
—treaty of Brussels (the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) which sets up the Western Union, signature of the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO, on April 4, 1949
—Council of Europe created by the treaty of London on May 5, 1949
—the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) created in 1951 brings together France, Italy, the FRG and the Benelux countries
—failure of the EDC (European Defense Community), whose treaty was signed in 1952, but rejected by the National Assembly in France in 1954
→ Chronology of European construction
→ Towards the Treaties of Rome
—enlargement of the Brussels Treaty to include West Germany and Italy in 1954 (the organization became Western European Union)
—two treaties are signed in Rome on March 25, 1957: the first gives rise to the EEC (European Economic Community), the second to EURATOM (European Atomic Energy Community)
—Implementation of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy in 1962), Customs Union between the six EEC member countries, implemented a year and a half earlier in 1968
—The United Kingdom created the European Free Trade Association in 1960 to counterbalance the EEC, but finally asked to join the EEC, which de Gaulle vetoed in 1963 and 1967. The veto was lifted with the election of Pompidou in 1969
→ The troubled enlargement of the European community.
—failure of the Fouchet outline in 1961 and 1962, “empty chair policy” of Charles de Gaulle against a supranational power, which is resolved by the Luxembourg compromise of 1966
—treaties of the Elysée in January 1963, summit of The Hague in 1969, Common Market completed in 1970, Europe of the Nine in 1973 (the UK, Ireland and Denmark enter the EEC)
—Monetary snake system in 1972, then EMS (European Monetary System) in 1978
-in February 1986 the Single European Act was adopted, which modified the Treaty of Rome and opened the way to the common internal market
—treaty of Maastricht (city of the Netherlands) on February 7, 1992, establishing the European Union
→ 20 contemporary history cards (1945–2017)