The European Union in 2022/2023 : history, member states, entities

History and key dates

The creation of the European Union is directly linked to the end of the Second World War. With many deaths and infrastructures in ruins, it meant that countries would have to rebuild themselves.

In order for the project to succeed, it was also necessary to reconcile France and Germany and maintain lasting peace on the continent.

On May 5, 1949, the Council of Europe was created, the main objective of which was to protect the rule of law and human rights, which had been badly undermined during the wars that preceded it.

Driving the initiative of this project, we find those who would be nicknamed the “Builders":

     Winston Churchill (England)
     Konrad Adenauer (German Federal Republic)
     Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium)
     Robert Schuman (France)
     Ernest Bevin (UK)
     Alcide de Gasperi (Italy)

It was with this in mind that the European Convention on Human Rights would see the light of day in 1950.

On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created. It aimed to organise a collective defence of the signatory countries.

The North Atlantic Council was also established. This Council aimed to set up a coalition to protect member states in Europe, North America or the North Atlantic (North of the Tropic of Cancer) from potential military attacks.
Jean Monnet proposed that France and Germany produce and market of two economically profitable products: Coal and steel. Coal was used to produce energy and steel was used, in particular, for the manufacture of weapons. This pooling of everyone's resources assured that another conflict would not break out.

On May 9, 1950, Robert Schumann, Minister of Foreign Affairs, proposed extending this cooperation to other countries that also produced coal and steel.

May 9 would subsequently become "Europe Day”.

In 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community, the ECSC, was born.
The founding countries were: France, Italy, West Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium). The Treaty of Paris was signed, and the European Union began its construction.

Given the success of the ECSC Treaty, the founding countries want to extend the collaboration to other sectors of activity. This association of skills resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, which established the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)

On March 19, 1958, the European Parliamentary Assembly was born. The headquarters were in Strasbourg, and its President was Robert Schumann.

It replaced the ECSC Assembly and became the European Parliament on March 30, 1962.

Member states and candidates

List of member countries with their date of accession

*Following the BREXIT vote, the United Kingdom left the EU in 2021

States recognised as potential candidates for accession to the European Union

The European Commission

Founded, in 1958, its headquarters were in Brussels. In 2022 it was chaired by Ursula Von Der Leyen.

It was made up of 27 commissioners (1 per member state) and meets once a week in Brussels and once a month at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Its purpose is to act in the interest of the European Union. It ensures compliance with European law. In the case of non-compliance on the part of the member states, it has the power to sanction.

The Presidency of Europe

It is said to be rotating, that is to say, that each country takes up the presidency of Europe in turn. The rotation takes place every six months, in alphabetical order of the name of each Member State in its official language.

This way of presiding was called into question, on the one hand, by the Treaty of Rome of 2004, then by the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007, which created in January 2010 a President of the European Council for two and a half years. The rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union continues despite everything.

Regarding France, she was in the presidency from January to June 1959, 1962, 1965,1968,1971; July to December 1974, then again from January to June 1979, 1984; July to December 1989; from January to June 1995, from July to December 2000.

From 2007, a tripartite presidency system was put in place, to allow each new member country to be president without having to wait several decades.

France assumes the presidency from July to December 2008 and January to June 2022.

European defence

Following the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, it seems obvious that the European Union must be independent in terms of armaments and defence against the enemy. It is for this reason that heads of state have adopted the "Strategic Compass”.

It is a sort of defence roadmap which specifies that the European Union will have full authority to intervene where its assistance is requested (land, sea, cyberspace, neutral zones, etc.). It has visibility over the next 10 years on the implementation of concrete actions:

-    freedom to act,
-    Cooperation between states
-    investment,
-    Security.

FRONTEX

It is the European border guard (land) and coast guard (maritime) agency. Created in 2004, its objective is to help the Member States of the European Union and the countries associated with the Schengen area to protect the external borders of the area of free movement.

It is made up of approximately 1,600 members, ready to act and be deployed throughout the European area.

Among its activities, we note the analysis of risks in terms of illegal immigration and criminal activities and the assessment of the vulnerability of states to migratory pressure.

FRONTEX also intervenes at the maritime level, in particular, in the control of fishing zones, the detection of pollution, and maritime regulations.

The European Union and international relations

The European Union alone holds 20% of the commercial wealth and is a vast demographic block with more than 500 million inhabitants.

It has set itself the goal of maintaining peace and security in the world by sending missionaries and bringing medical and humanitarian aid to countries at war.

For its own defence, it counts on the NATO countries.

The European Union pays particular attention to respect for Human Rights. It creates the Sakharov Prize that rewards the benefactors of humanity. Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan were the winners in 1988 and 2003, respectively.

Despite all these actions and means, Europe is considered by some to be "economically powerful, politically weak and militarily insignificant".