How did the European Union form?

The European Union is history's most ambitious experiment in voluntary supranational governance — an attempt by nations that had devastated each other in two world wars to bind themselves together so tightly that war between them would become not merely unlikely but impossible. Its formation was a deliberate, incremental process spanning half a century.

The founding idea was brilliantly practical. In 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed placing French and German coal and steel production under a joint authority — the industries essential for war would be shared, making military conflict materially impossible. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), established in 1951 by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, was the seed from which the entire European project grew.

The Treaty of Rome (1957) created the European Economic Community (EEC) — a common market that would eliminate tariffs between member states, establish a common external tariff, and allow the free movement of goods. The economic logic was compelling: larger markets meant greater efficiency, more competition, and higher growth. Over the following decades, the EEC deepened integration through agricultural policy, regional development funds, and increasingly harmonized regulations.

The Single European Act (1986) set the goal of a true single market by 1992 — not just eliminating tariffs but removing all barriers to the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. The Maastricht Treaty (1992) was the transformative leap: it created the European Union, established European citizenship, and laid the groundwork for a common currency — the euro, introduced in 1999 and circulating as cash from 2002.

Expansion brought in new members: Britain, Ireland, and Denmark (1973); Greece (1981); Spain and Portugal (1986); Austria, Finland, and Sweden (1995); and a dramatic eastward expansion in 2004 that brought in ten countries, including former Soviet bloc states. The EU grew from 6 to 28 members (27 after Brexit).

The EU's evolution has not been smooth. The eurozone debt crisis (2010–2015) exposed the contradictions of shared currency without shared fiscal policy. The migration crisis of 2015 tested solidarity. Brexit (2020) was the first departure of a member state. Tensions between national sovereignty and supranational governance remain constant. Yet the EU's fundamental achievement — that war between France, Germany, and their neighbors has become unthinkable — represents one of the most remarkable political transformations in human history.