Why Was the Eu Created?
1. Why was the European Union created? Are these goals still matching the actual needs of the Union? In 1795, German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote in his famous essay Towards a Perpetual Peace that the ‘the spirit of commerce sooner or later takes hold of every people 1 and it cannot exist side by side with war’ . In the case of the European states this spirit has been able to manifest itself through the evolutionary creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and finally the European Union (EU), through the Treaty of Paris (1951) and the Treaties of Rome (1957), Maastricht (1992) and finally Lisbon (2007). The ECSC was created in the wake of Europe’s need to rebuild as a primarily economic cooperative focused on the resources of the British occupied Ruhr Valley. Initially evolving into a union to promote trade by abandoning internal tariffs, the EU quickly evolved into an entity looking to safeguard prosperity and peace across its member states by broadening the cooperative spirit of trade into a more political union. While this purpose continues to act as the foundation of the EU’s purpose and ability to act, the shifting geopolitical landscape and the emergence of the EU as the single largest trading bloc in the world – endowed with the power to expand geographically – require the EU to go beyond its initial purpose to serve as a relevant actor on the world stage. th As the European Union continues to expand – planning to add its 28 member, Croatia, in July of 2013 – it is expanding into a region where its founding purpose will be very much needed and relevant. The Balkans experienced continuous political instability and conflict between the onset of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 and the declaration of Montenegro’s independence in 2006. Adding a second former Yugoslavian territory to the Union will help to incentivise neighbouring countries to align their policies to the EU’s as they gear up their own membership