The History Of The European Union And A Possible Place In It For Turkey

1. INTRODUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic community with supranational and intergovernmental features that had their beginnings in the First World War (1914-1918) and their bad consequences, and these ones initiate the process of cooperation and a lately integration of the future EU, but most, if not all actual steps taken to achieve economic andpolitical unity in Europe originated after 1945. However, immediately after the First World War, politicians began to give serious consideration to the concept of European unity because the main reason for the pursuit of unity was the achievement of lasting peace in Europe.
The European Union is composed of twenty-seven member states primarily located in Europe. In 1957, six European countriesformed the European Economic Community (EEC) by the Treaty of Rome. Since then, the EU has grown in size through the accession of new member states and has increased its powers by the addition of new policy areas to its remit. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty established the current legal framework.
The EU created a single market which seeks to guarantee the freedom of movement of people, goods,services and capital between member states. It maintains a common trade policy, agricultural and fisheries policies, and a regional development policy. In 1999, the EU introduced a common currency, the euro, which has been adopted by thirteen member states. It has also developed a role in foreign policy, and in justice and home affairs. Passport control and customs checks between many member stateswere abolished under the Schengen Agreement.
The EU consist on a whole important institutions including the Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Council, the Economic and Social Committee (ESC), the Committee of the Regions, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Courts (The European Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance and the Court ofAuditors) and the Ombudsman. EU citizens (more or less 500 million) elect the Parliament every five years.













2. ANTECEDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
2.1. From 1918 to 1939
For lots of people, the First World War (1914-1918) was the first opportunity to overcome the aggressive nationalism that had brought the continent to the catastrophe and to adopt the idea of a pacific andlinked Europe.
In 1923 the Austrian Count Richard Nikolaus Graf von Coudenhove Kalergi established the Paneuropean Movement that expected to lay a federation with a paneuropean character that prevented the conflicts of the continent and created a pacific resolution between the European countries. But this Paneuropean Movement failed because of the tension caused for the rivalry between Germanyand France.



In 1929, Aristide Briand, the French Prime Minister suggested in the Assembly of Nations Society the proposal to exceed the traditional French- German rivalry by creating the axis between both countries that allows organize an European Union that prevented past casualties. Aristide Briand suggested firstly to create a federation of European nations to find the politic and socialcooperation and also the growth of the economy.
The speech that made the Prime Minister Briand had a big success in the German government and between lots of economist, the British ones like John M. Keynes.
The entrance of Adolf Hitler to the German chancellery in 1933 meant the definitive end of the European harmony and the renaissance of the nationalism monster in their bad version. Europeand with her all the world, headed to a new catastrophe, the Second World War (1939- 1945).

2.2. From the end of the Second World War (WWII) to the Schuman Plan (1945- 1950)
With this Second World War, it was obvious the necessity of one type of European integration to rearrange the European political map because three realities shew this necessity of a new orientation of the integration:
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