by Nuala O'Neill

Created on: March 13, 2010   Last Updated: March 19, 2010

Was the foundation of the European Union a good idea?

Ten years ago, I started my study of the law of the European Union. It is difficult for an English lawyer used to the rather untidy Common Law and the unwritten British Constitution, to adjust to the more codified and procedurally-based body of law developed by the European Union. But as time went by and I became more accustomed to the treaty-based law, I began to see the symmetry and attention to the process of law-making that is almost completely absent from many national systems.

When asked whether or not the foundation of the European Union is a good idea, it is also a good idea to first ask why the European Union was founded and secondly, once it is clear why the Union was founded, has it succeeded in its aims.

The EU was founded for one purpose and one purpose only. That was to prevent war in Europe. The history of the European continent has been marred with war and in the first half of the twentieth century, Europe was devastated by two catastrophic wars. 

In the immediate post World War 2 period there was a general desire amongst the European nations that war on the European continent must never happen again.

Capturing the mood of the times, on 9th May 1950 Robert Schuman the French foreign minister, published a proposal that would take control of the production and distribution of the two raw materials necessary to make war - coal and steel, thus making war between France and Germany ‘not only unthinkable, but impossible’.

This idea was formalised by the Treaty of Paris in 1951 and along with France and Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) made up the six nations of the European Coal and Steel Communities.

As time passed it became apparent that enlarging the Steel and Coal idea to include other areas of activity, such as economic improvement and the development of the fledgling technology of nuclear power, would bind the member states in a closer union which would ensure that it would be totally contrary to their interests to go to war with each other. 

In 1957 with the signature of the Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Community were formed. These communities, along with the Steel and Coal Community, were administered by their own civil service and court and member states had regular input into the running of the communities by meetings of the European Council which consisted

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