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Birth of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), that is
an international organization, now extinct, which represented the first step in the process of European integration. It was established with the Paris Treaty of 1951, signed by Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and it aimed at creating a common market for coal and steel, characterized by the circulation of these resources and free access to sources of production. -
The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (TCEE) is the international treaty that established the EEC, signed on March 25, 1957 together with the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (TCEEA): together they are called the Treaties of Rome and were signed by the representatives of the six founding countries.
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The six founding countries officially become nine.
Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined the EEC. -
This event weakened the Soviet Union and paved the way for German reunification.
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The Maastricht Treaty is one of the treaties of the European Union, signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands, by the twelve member countries of the then European Community.
It defines the so-called three pillars of the European Union, also establishing the political rules and the economic and social parameters necessary for the entry of the various member states into the aforementioned Union. -
The Euro, the common currency of nineteen member states of the European Union, was first introduced in 1999 as a virtual unit of account.
Its introduction in the form of cash occurred for the first time in 2002, in twelve of the then fifteen states of the Union. In the following years, the currency was progressively adopted by other member states, leading to the current situation in which nineteen of the twenty-seven EU states, the so-called Eurozone, recognize the euro as their legal currency. -
The simultaneous accessions involved the following countries:
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries under it become independent. In fact this date is important, because many Eastern European countries joined the EU. Before these countries had a planned economy, where wasn't freedom and no private sector, because everything was decided by the State. -
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The European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 for helping to transform most of Europe from a continent of war into a continent of peace.
The EU won the award for contributing to peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. -
In 2020, the UK left the European Union.
In fact, the EU Member States have gone from 28 to 27.