The Development of European Unity ( Pages 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 )

 

Other essays and articles in the History Archives related to this topic include : The Economics of Socialism: An Historical Perspective  •  War and the Downfall of the Monarchies in France and Russia   •  The Battle of Iwo Jima

 

To this end, following the Tindeman Report, resolutions were adopted that made provisions for establishing policy and practices in the areas of foreign affairs, economics, culture, social welfare, and politics (Burgess, 2000). In order to actually define and implement such policy, the Tindeman Report called for existing national governments to work together to concede and confer authority upon a European Union to exercise four specific values: authority, efficiency, legitimacy and coherence (Burgess, 2000). It was believed that these values expressed that formed the significance of the Tindeman Report were critical to spearheading the institutional change—both psychological and pragmatic—needed to endow a European central government with the power needed to represent an entire continent.

 

While these advancements mentioned thus far, including the Tindeman Report were meaningful, and certainly represented more progress than had been achieved prior to that particular point in history with respect to the goal of unification, the Paris Summit and the Tindeman Report did not necessarily signify that the implementation of the European Union was fast, simple, or without considerable challenges. Hammering out the policies and procedures in the Tindeman Report and in other documents for accession to the European Union for the countries that were interested in joining the federal continental body still remained to be accomplished (Elgstrom & Jonsson, 2005; Steunenberg, 2002). So, too, did the European Union need to decide how it would address the matter of responding to those countries that did not want to join the continental collective. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, the European Union had advanced substantially in constituting itself and in developing the institutions and policies that would come to define the continental bloc (Van Gerven, 2005). While the Tindeman Report served its function, it was time for more developments to solidify the changes brought about by the policy suggestions in the Tindeman Report.

 

Ultimately, European Union member states were able to overcome the primary obstacle of unification that had confounded them for so long, that of negotiating a workable balance between the needs and interests of individual nation-states and the needs and interests of a intergovernmental body (Van Gerven, 2005). The model that was eventually adopted for the European Union permitted a compromise in which nations retained their own governments, which, in turn, retained particular spheres of influence and power with respect to domestic affairs (Van Gerven, 2005). At the same time, however European Union member countries agree, as a condition of membership in the political, economic, and social bloc, to be subject to the institutions, policies, and laws of a larger governmental body, that of a European Parliament, whose members are elected by EU citizens every five years (Van Gerven, 2005). The EU organizational framework may not be perfect, but it certainly strives to be just. In order to avoid any charges of favoritism and to avert conflicts of interest, the seat of EU government power rotates, and the heads of state of member countries are closely involved with EU affairs (Van Gerven, 2005).

 

Although it took more than 50 years, Winston Churchill’s dream of European unification has finally been achieved. Admittedly, the dream was not as Churchill himself envisioned it; what ultimately resulted from the long and arduous struggle for continental unification in Europe was actually more evolved, expansive, and equitable than Churchill could have dreamed. Despite divergent histories, cultures, languages, traditions, political needs, and interests, the member countries that comprise the European Union have largely succeeded in their efforts to create a continental system of institutions and infrastructure that meet common needs and goals (Van Gerven, 2005). Overcoming nationalism that contributed to the political fragmentation and the social and economic devastation of the continent during the period of the second World War in particular, the European Union represents an impressive accomplishment of nations that recognize the value of interdependence and working together for the greater good as opposed to a strategy of isolationism.

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