1945

End of World War Two

1945

Jean Monnet was appointed as the Planning Commissioner in France, responsible for post-war economic reconstruction.

1946

Winston Churchill called for "the establishment of a United States of Europe"

1948

The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation was set up to distribute American aid to European countries - the Marshall Plan.

1948

The European Movement convened a special meeting of leading politicians of the day in The Hague. It was this Hague Congress that set the uniting of European peoples and nations on the international agenda.

1949

The Council of Europe was set up, and the North Atlantic Treaty was signed. Europe was divided in two, cutting Germany in half.

1949

Monnet proposed a scheme to Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, to pool resources of iron and steel production

1950

The Schuman Plan was presented on May 9th. It proposed "that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole be placed under a common High Authority, within the framework of an organization open to the participation of the other countries of Europe."

1951

The Treaty of Paris: Six countries - Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany - signed the treaty that led to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

1952

The European Coal and Steel Community was established.

1955

At Messina, Italy, it was proposed to launch two new Communities: the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). The EEC would merge separate national markets into a single market that would ensure the free movement of goods, people, capital, and services with a wide range of common economic policies; and EURATOM would further the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

1957

The Treaty of Rome, authorising the two new Communities, was signed by the Six in March 1957, and the EEC and EURATOM were established in January 1958.

1960

The European Free Trade Association was founded (see below).

1967

ECSC, EURATOM and EEC became collectively known as the European Communities.

1973

The United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined the European Communities.

1981

Greece joined the European Communities.

1985

The Schengen Countries: five European Community countries signed a treaty to end internal border checkpoints and controls between them: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, followed later by Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The United Kingdom is not part of the Schengen Area.

1986

Spain and Portugal joined the European Communities.

1990

Länder of the former German Democratic Republic, as part of the reunified Germany, became incorporated into the European Communities.

1993

The Treaty on European Union was signed at Maastricht, and signalled the beginning of the move towards Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Other aspects of the founding treaties were re-examined. The Maastricht Treaty also created European citizenship and strengthened the European Parliament's legislative role in certain areas.

1995

Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the European Union.

2002

2004

Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, The Slovak Republic and Slovenia became members of the European Union.

Applicant States:

Bulgaria
Croatia
Romania
Turkey

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

EFTA was founded in 1960 in order to liberalise trade between its members - Iceland, Liechenstein, Norway and Switzerland - specifically fish and processed agricultural products.

During the 1970s EFTA and the EEC trade areas were linked by trade agreements.

Further negotiations resulted in the establishment in 1994 of the European Economic Area, comprising Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein and the EU States.

Currently the EFTA States have Free Trade Agreements with many countries across the world, including several with the EU's applicant states.