History of the European Communities (1945–1957)

The period saw the first moves towards European unity as the first bodies began to be established in the aftermath of the Second World War. In 1951 the first community, the European Coal and Steel Community was established and moves on new communities quickly began. Early attempts at military and political unity failed, eventually leading to the Treaties of Rome in 1957.

The Second World War from 1939 to 1945 saw an unprecedented human and economic cost, in which Europe was affected particularly severely through the totality of modern warfare and large scale massacres such as the Holocaust. Once again, there was a widespread desire amongst European governments to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war giving the world nuclear weapons and two ideologically opposed superpowers. (See: Cold War)

In 1946, war-time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke at the University of Zurich on "The tragedy of Europe"; in which he called for a "United States of Europe", not including the UK, to be created on a regional level while strengthening the UN. He described the first step to a "USE" as a "Council of Europe". London would, in 1949, be the location for the signing of the Treaty of London, establishing the separate entity of the Council of Europe.

In 1948, the Congress of Europe was convened in the Hague, under Winston Churchill's chairmanship, by the European unification movements. It was the first time all the movements had come together under one roof and attracted a myriad of statesmen including many who would later become known as founding fathers of the European Union. The congress discussed the formation of a new Council of Europe and led to the establishment of the European Movement and the College of Europe, however it exposed a division between unionist (opposed to a loss of sovereignty) and federalist (desiring a federal Europe) supporters. This unionist-federalist divide was reflected in the establishment of the Council of Europe in 1949. The Council was designed with two main political bodies, one composed of governments, the other of national members of parliament. Based in Strasbourg, it is an organisation dealing with democracy and human rights issues (today covering nearly every European state).

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