European Construction

Winston Churchill was the first to announce the European Union based on a Franco-German partnership. The Congress of Europe started on May 7, 1948, in The Hague. Seventeen countries took part. At the end of the Congress, the participants adopted a Political Resolution calling for the unification of Europe. This resolution was implemented on May 5, 1949, in London, when the Foreign Ministers of ten countries signed the Treaty establishing the Council of Europe, laying the foundations for the European Union. The European Coal and Steel Community was the first of the supranational European institutions that preceded the establishment of the European Union as we know it today. European integration would continue with the founding of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, established by the Treaties of Rome of March 25, 1957. The goal of the European Economic Community was to create a common market that would permit the free movement of goods and people. The Organization for European Economic Co-operation was established in 1948 to help administer the aid granted by the United States to Western Europe under the Marshall Plan. It was within this framework that the European Payments Union was created in 1950.