EU timeline: from destruction to steelmaking … to meltdown

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/10/timeline-europe-eu-elections

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From the ashes of war…

In 1945 western Europe was a scene of devastation after almost six years of world war. French foreign minister Robert Schuman and diplomat Jean Monnet drove the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community, a proto-common market overseen by a supranational authority. The aim was to bind the states together economically, ensuring that war was "not only unthinkable but materially impossible". A treaty was signed in 1951 by France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

A common market

In 1957 the same six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, creating a common market in labour, capital, goods and services. A Common Agricultural Policy was created in 1962. As the democracies of western Europe (bar the UK) deepened their ties, a standoff grew with the Soviet bloc of countries in the east. The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the communist east and capitalist west divide, was built in 1961.

Street warfare

In Brussels, the customs union came into force ahead of schedule, but progress on integration was overshadowed by events elsewhere. The generation whose parents had fought in the second world war took to the streets of Paris, Rome and West Berlin in 1968, calling for greater democracy, an end to the Vietnam war and a more libertarian, egalitarian society. Meanwhile, Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring.

The oil shock

The decision by Arab Opec countries to restrict the supply of oil in 1973, dramatically forcing up the price for western consumers, signalled the end of the long postwar economic boom in Europe. In Britain, the end result was the notorious winter of discontent, which heralded the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in 1979. Stagflation and debt galvanised the EEC member states, by now including Britain, to ratify the Single European Act in 1986, to try to boost competitiveness and economic growth. The era of "harmonisation" – and endless "straight banana" stories in UK newspapers – was born.

The handbag era

Thatcher's implacable opposition to the idea of "ever-greater union" launched the modern era of Conservative Euroscepticism. She also fought tooth and nail to secure a British rebate from the EU budget in 1984, relishing her portrayal as a flinty housewife type determined to hang onto her money. But Thatcher was a devotee of the single market and enlargement of the Union to the east, both of which were to become major features of the EU. Since the 1980s, Eurosceptic Conservatives have become progressively more radical in their rejection of the EU, leading David Cameron to offer a referendum on membership in 2017, if he is re-elected.

The Berlin Wall falls

In 1989 east and west Berliners demolished the barrier which had divided the city for nearly 50 years. It signalled the end of the cold war and a revolution in the affairs of the EU. Within a year Germany was reunified, making it the most powerful, populous nation in the EU. By 1991 the Soviet Union had collapsed. Over the next 20 years the EU would almost double in size as eastern enlargement took place at breakneck speed.

The euro is launched

1 January 1999 was the biggest red-letter day in the history of EU integration since the Treaty of Rome. The launch of a single European currency, the euro, was heralded by supporters as a spur to growth across the eurozone. Britain stayed out, as did Sweden and Denmark, but a commitment to join up is a condition for any new EU member. Currently 18 member states use the euro, which is the second-biggest reserve currency in the world.

After the crash

Since the crash of 2008-09, the economic governance of the euro has come under severe criticism, as the absence of a common banking system and mutualised debt left member states at the mercy of financial markets. The sovereign debt crisis and consequent policies of austerity have led to steep recessions in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere. The traumatic period has led to calls for greater fiscal and political union as eurosceptic sentiment has surged across the continent, along with a resurgence of nationalism.