MOVES TOWARDS UNITY

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS LEADING TO THE FORMATION OF THE TREATIES OF ROME


In 1946 Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain, made a speech. He made a call for a “kind of United States of Europe”. This was seen to be ironic as Britain was at the time refusing to join the European Economic Community (EEC).
Also in that year the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) made the first move towards a “United States of Europe”. They introduced the Benelux Customs Union.
In 1947 we saw the Western European economy begin to recover, the Marshall Plan, thought up by General George Marshall aided this. In order to deal with the money distribution the “Oragnisation for European Economic Cooperation” (OEEC) was formed.
In 1948 the Benelux removed all intra-tariffs so that goods could be moved between the countries with the same charge.
In 1950, the founding fathers of Europe, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet declared...