what is the EU
How many countries in the European Union?
27
When was the Yalta Conference?
1945
When did the Congress of Europe take place?
1948
When was the Treaty of Rome?
1957
What are the Benelux countries?
Belgium
Netherlands
Luxembourg
bonus points: Europe day is on?
9th of may
When was the Marshall plan announced?
5/6/1947
Why was the CEEC created?
The United States insisted that decisions on the distribution and use of Marshall aid be taken by the European states jointly. To implement this, a body known as the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC) was set up.
What is the name of the treaty that set up the EEC?
Treaty of Rome
How many times did the UK apply for membership?
3 times (was rejected twice by De Gaulle)
The six founding countries of the EEC?
France
Germany
Italy
Belgium
Netherlands
Luxembourg
What is the Marshall Plan?
Financial and food aid offered by the USA to help in the European reconstruction
Who announced the plan for coal and steel? When?
Schuman, 1950
What is the EURATOM?
The aim of the Euratom Treaty is to ‘encourage progress in the field of nuclear energy’.
In particular, the objective is, within a common nuclear energy market:
to promote research;
to achieve security of supply for all EU countries;
to establish a system for supervising the peaceful use of nuclear materials intended for civilian use and ensuring high common standards for health and safety.
What is the "empty chair crisis"?
In 1965, a proposal for financing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by Walter Hallstein sparked the 'empty chair' crisis in the European Economic Community.
The proposal: establish the Communities' own financial resources, grant more budgetary powers to the European Parliament, & increase the Commission's role.
However, France opposed this proposal, viewing it as a loss of sovereignty and a lack of consultation. French President General de Gaulle criticized Hallstein for acting independently and not consulting Member States.
France's refusal to compromise led to the breakdown of negotiations, with French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville withdrawing from the Council of Ministers.
This standoff resulted in the 'empty chair' crisis, halting EEC operations for the first time since the Treaty of Rome in 1958.
is the EU just an economic union?
no
What was the purpose of the Yalta conference?
At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world.
What is the "German problem"?
At the end of the Second World War, in accordance with agreements made between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at Yalta in February 1945, Germany was divided by the victorious Allies - Britain, the US, the Soviet Union and France - into four zones of occupation. It was originally intended that the country would be governed as a single entity by central German administrations, in accordance with decisions made by the four Allies acting jointly through the Allied Control Council in Berlin, but in practice each of the Allies ran their zone more or less independently for the first two years of the occupation. In 1947 the British and US zones combined economically to form the ‘Bizone’ but remained separate political entities. It was not until 1949, four years after the end of the war, that the three western zones formally joined together to form the Federal Republic of (West) Germany, and the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
What is the EDC?
The EDC aimed to enhance defense cooperation and integrate West Germany into a European security system but faced resistance in the UK and France. Plans for the EDC were ultimately abandoned in 1954 due to concerns about sovereignty.
What is the EFTA
European Free Trade Association
Some characteristics of the EU
Single currency: the euro
Single market
No border controls
Representative democracy
Human rights
Why were the coal and steel industries chosen?
Coal and steel were the building blocks of industry, and the steel industry tended to create cartels. Cooperation would eliminate waste and duplication, dismantle cartels, make coal and steel production more efficient and competitive, and boost industrial development.
The heavy industries of the Ruhr Valley had constituted the traditional basis for Germany’s power, and France and Germany had battled before over coal reserves in Alsace-Lorraine. Monnet argued that “coal and steel were at once the key to economic power and the raw materials for forging weapons of war. "Forging a supranational coal and steel industry would help contain German power.
Integrating coal and steel would ensure that Germany became reliant on trade with the rest of Europe, bolstering its economic reconstruction and calming French fears of German industrial domination.
What is the Pleven Plan?
The initial Pleven plan called for integration of France, West Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries into the EDC.
It led to the treaty of Paris: the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community
What are the main events on the Economic evolution? (3)
Marshall Plan (1947)
ECSC
Treaty of Rome
Two non economic integration ideas failed, what are they?
EDC and EPC