by Julie Spaulding

Created on: July 13, 2009

Whilst the European Union was officially 'born' at the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the origins of modern European unity can be found as far back as the Roman Empire, over two thousand years ago. Since then, the continent has seen many empires rise and fall, finishing with the gradually-unifying countries of Europe today.

The concept of a united Europe is by no means new. Since the days of the Romans, various rulers have attempted to unite Europe under one iron fist, notably Charlemagne, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. After World War II, which was partially started due to Germany's expansionist policies, the crumbling nations of continental Europe realised that in order to recover from the war and emerge even more powerful than before, cooperation was the key. In 1949 the Council of Europe was formed with the main aims of achieving unity in Europe through the principles of human rights and the rule of law. Its most famous achievement was the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1950. Through the Council of Europe the European Court of Human Rights was formed, one step further in political and legal European integration.

In 1951 France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg signed the Treaty of Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), encouraging international cooperation in coal and steel matters in the post-war reconstruction effort. Within the ECSC were two of today's most important European Union institutions; the High Authority (now the European Commission) and the Common Assembly (now the European Parliament). By this stage a feature of modern-day countries the traditional legislative, executive and judicial arms of national government were apparent - the European Parliament, European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights respectively.

The Benelux countries and West Germany wanted to take European integration one step further by establishing a common market for Western Europe. Whilst France initially opposed the idea on the basis that their protectionist economic policy would be harmed by such a market, they settled on a compromise whereby the European Economic Community (the common market) was established along with the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) at the signing of the Treaties of Rome in 1957. The emerging system of communities was quite disorganised and confusing, and all three communities shared the same institutions with the exception of the executive

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