Both, Europe and the European Union have come a long way in the last 50 years.

In the early 1950s, many places in Europe were still covered in the rubble of the Second World War and the horrors of this conflict had left a deep impression in peoples' hearts and minds. Out of the desire to prevent such a conflict from taking place again and the simultaneous realisation, that combined efforts would be needed for its reconstruction, one of the predecessors of the European Union was born.

Although immediately after the war, Winston Churchill had called for a United States of Europe, it wasn't until the so-called "Schuman declaration" in May 1950 that practical plans were beginning to take shape. French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman's plan involved the creation of an organisation for the joint management of West Germany's and France's coal and steel industries and resources.

According to this plan, in 1951, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed the treaty of Paris, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.

Although Franco-German rapprochement and multilateral control of resources were initially at the core of the Community, a spirit of co-operation between all six members emerged, and soon spread into other areas. The history of a continuously enlarging and ever closer union had begun…

The Treaty of Rome whose 50^th anniversary we celebrate this year, was signed on the 25^th of March 1957 by the same six states that were part of the European Coal and Steel Community. It created the European Economic Community and was the first of many successive steps that widened and deepened the cooperation between its signatories. The European Economic Community formed the core of what later became the European Union, but as its name implies, it was originally limited to the economic sphere. It laid the foundation for the creation of a single or common European market by beginning to remove internal barriers to trade.

In 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined, in 1981 Greece acceded and in 1986 Spain and Portugal became the 11^th and 12^th member states. Then the Berlin wall fell and the Cold War was over. This opened the door for further accessions, first of the so-called neutral states – Austria, Finland and Sweden, who entered in 1995 – then extending way beyond the former iron curtain. The biggest enlargement in EU history happened in 2004, when Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus joined. Finally, the latest enlargement has added Romania and Bulgaria, bringing the total number of member states up to 27, representing a population of almost 500,000,000.

In 2002, the Euro replaced the national currencies of 12 countries and this year, Slovenia has joined as number 13. Other countries are expected to follow over the next few years. It benefits companies through lower transaction costs, whereas consumers enjoy a better comparability of prices and do not have to change money when they travel to another eurozone country. Moreover, national economies benefit from bigger foreign direct investment, whilst the world economy is provided with a stable alternative for foreign reserve that is more predictable than the individual national currencies were. The Euro is situated in the general framework of economic and monetary union, which co-ordinates and disciplines the eurozone's fiscal, monetary and economic policies.

However, the EU is about much more than just economics. Common education standards for schools and universities ensure that our young citizens are well prepared for work in Europe and beyond. The exchange scheme Socrates-Erasmus gives university students the opportunity to spend part of their course in another country. Well over one million students have already participated in this programme. Furthermore, the EU supports countless other projects in education, science and culture…

Moreover, the EU is not only focussing on its own internal affairs, but also plays a proactive role in the world. EU police missions help to bring order into post-Conflict situations, in collaboration with the local police. The EU is the world's biggest provider of development aid and in times of crises, this is further supplemented by financial and logistical contribution to humanitarian relief in war and post-war situations, as well as after natural disasters.

Of course, the EU pays special attention to its own neighbourhood. For this purpose, it has created a variety of instruments to deal with different categories of neighbouring states:

Ukraine falls under the coverage of the European neighbourhood policy. Whilst this is not a promise of EU membership, it does not exclude it and it recognises Ukraine's European aspiration and encourages its leaders to carry out the reforms necessary to integrate more closely with the Union. Moreover, it has a substantial partnership with Ukraine through the European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument, which replaces TACIS and which is used to fund, amongst other things, the reforms identified by the EU and Ukraine in the Action Plan.

More information about the 50^th anniversary can be found here: