The European Union's Origin
Let's see the major reasons why the EU was formed with a few countries and only focused on one industry in its early years.
At this point, I believe that we all have an idea about what the EU is. However, do you know its pioneer countries and how it was formed? Why was post-war European integration confined to the coal and steel industries and to the "Little Europe of Six"? If not, this will be a very brief, to-the-point informatory post for you.
The end of WWII set the stage for current European integration with countries prioritizing economic restoration over the political union. However, the start of the Cold War, as well as the continent's geographical and ideological division, demanded a shift away from mere inter-state cooperation and toward regional economic integration.
According to Churchill, a collaboration between France and Germany must be the first step towards the re-creation of the European family. Meanwhile, France was indicating that to proceed beyond recovery, a single nation's resources were insufficient; it was necessary to look outside the national framework. And lastly, the Schuman Plan emphasized that the best way to accomplish integration was to take gradual moves in areas where national sovereignty was less problematic than in ‘‘high politics’’. The idea of sectoral integration was the focus. Hence, the concept for pooling coal and steel resources suggested by Schuman was the first part of the supranational consensus.
If we look at the countries in detail, although other states were encouraged to join, such as the UK, six European countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, West Germany, and France signed the Paris Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. However, to understand why these six states are the signatories, their main goals during that time must be looked into. France was aiming for international control of Germany and secure continued access to German coal resources.
On the other hand, Germany was using this as a means of resolving the Ruhr problem and a time for a kind of international rehabilitation. The Benelux states were economically dependent on France and Germany, so this was nearly inevitable for them. Finally, Italy hoped to use this as a means of combating domestic communism and restoring international legitimacy. On the other hand, the UK was opposed to supranationalism, which was controversial with the UK’s aims of the predominance of global interests as an empire.
So before the integration spread to continental Europe in all other sectors and policy areas, the unity that led to today’s EU was more sector-specific and relatively isolated.