Current Issues in EU Integration

The main impetus for the formation of a co-operative movement amongst countries in Western Europe, was the experience of the Second World War. Indeed, the need to avert further conflicts and consolidate peace is a goal that the process of European integration has certainly helped to achieve.’ The first initiative, drawn up by Jean Monnet, the head of the French Commission for Economic Planning, was to ensure that reconstruction in the heavy industries of (West) Germany should not endanger peace. The result was the European Coal and Steel Treaty (ECST) in 1951 which had three key objectives. First, to ensure integration through the removal of customs duties and quotas over a five-year transition period, modernisation and expansion of these industries through investment, the restriction of protectionist state aids and the provision of a common external commercial policy. Second, such detailed agreements were subservient to the political goal of achieving stability between France and Germany. Finally, the Treaty was instrumental in setting up supra-national institutions (e.g. the Council of Ministers, European Court of Justice) which would begin the process of closer co-operation between European partners.