A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: FROM THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE TO THE EU
Background
Following World War II, the European nations were united with the firm goal of preventing such killing and destruction from being repeated.
This spirit of collaboration was materialised in 1949, with the signing of the London Treaty, which created the Council of Europe.
There were ten founding States: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The Council's mission was to promote democracy and to protect human rights and the rule of law.
On 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman, considered one of the founding fathers of European unity, presented a proposal for the creation of an organised Europe, which is known as the "Schuman Declaration 
", it proposed joint control of coal and steel production: the raw materials of the weapons industry.
The birth of the European Communities
Following the general lines of Robert Schuman's proposal, in 1951 six countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) signed an agreement on joint management of their heavy industries: coal and steel. Thus, the European Coal and Steel Community, (ECSC) was created.
Given the success of the initiative, it was not long before those countries decided to integrate other sectors of their economies, such as agriculture, and advance along the path towards eliminating trade barriers and setting up a common market.
In March 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed in Rome, under which the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) were created.
The three existing Communities (ECSC, EEC and EAEC or EURATOM) merged together in 1965 under the Brussels Treaty. Everything was simplified. The three Councils of Ministers (ECSC, EEC and EURATOM), the two Commissions (EEC, Euratom) and the High Authority (ECSC) were replaced by a single Council and a single Commission.
The European Union Act
In the 1980s, despite the elimination of customs tariffs in 1968, certain obstacles still persisted, such as diverging national legislation, which hampered economic exchanges. Therefore, the integration process was reactivated.
The enactment of the Single European Act in 1986 entailed the first great reform of the current Treaties, and established the goal of creating a single market by no later than 1 January 1993.
The Maastricht Treaty
In 1992, a definitive step forward was taken in the process of integration with the approval of the European Union Treaty , also called the Maastricht Treaty.
The European Economic Community became the European Community (EC). A new, supranational organisation was created, the European Union, which absorbed the three existing European Communities: the ECSC, the EC and the EAEC. This paved the way for the creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), with clear rules for the establishment of a single currency.
The final agreements
The Amsterdam Treaty in 1997and the Nice Treaty in 2001 made it possible to extend the authority of the Union and for the Member States to progress towards relinquishing significant portions of their sovereignty in the interest of common rules and harmonised action standards.