Abstract
The idea of a united Europe was once just a dream in the minds of philosophers and visionaries. Already in 1620, the Duke of Sully imagined "a body politics of all the States of Europe which could produce between its members an unalterable peace and a perpetual trade". In The 19th Century, Victor Hugo wrote: "One day will come where one will see these two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, placed opposite one another, tightening the hand over the seas, exchanging their products, their trade, their industry". The dream was shattered by two terrible wars that ravaged the continent during the first half of the 20th century.
But the historical roots of the European Union lie in the Second World War. The idea of European integration was conceived to prevent such killing and destruction from ever happening again. Konrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill, Alcide de Gasperi and Robert Schuman, between 1945 and 1950, believed strongly in a new order in western Europe, based on the interests its peoples and nations shared together, and it would be founded upon treaties guaranteeing the rule of law and equality between all countries. That is why they set about persuading their peoples to enter a new era.
Thus, 1946, Winston Churchill, called it "the United States of Europe" and an Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created in 1948 in order to distribute the funds of the Marshall plan of American assistance for the rebuilding of Europe. The construction of the European Union was done according to the method of the "small steps". It consists of building Europe from the "bottom" thanks to the installation of a common management between several European countries, in limited strategic and increasingly sectors, in order to create a solidarity between these countries. This method is opposed to a construction by "the top" which would institute a European federation directly. This method is also called "Monnet-Schuman method".
