What is the most important date in European History?

What is the most important date in European History? 

VE Day or 9 May 1950?

Was the most important Date in European History any of the following?

Was it the end of World War 2?

The end of bloody warfare,

concentrations camps, slavery and genocide,

mass slaughter of millions, and

the Atomic Bomb?

Was it the end of World War 1?

The end of four empires German, Russian, Austria-Hungary, Turkish Ottoman.

The rise of Hitler.

Was it the Magna Carta of 1215 in Great Britain?

The Great Charter of Freedoms laid the legal basis for due process of Law,

church rights,

public freedom from autocratic powers of government,

limitation of taxes.

Was it the French Revolution or the Democratic Revolutions of 1848?

It was none of these.

None of these brought Europe its most precious gain, its attribute of most value. What s that?

PEACE.

All the famous dates in history did not bring that freedom from war and belligerent tyrants.

Our most important date is when

Europe began its happiest and most prosperous period in all its history. Do you know when, why and who originated it?

Be thankful you live in THE LONGEST PERIOD OF PEACE and PROSPERITY in all Western EUROPE’S HISTORY.

ROBERT SCHUMAN

Proclaimed Father of Europe by the European Parliament !1950 European Community & Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

resulting in

Western Europe’s FIRST three-quarters of a century of peace in all its history !

9 May 2020 SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OF PEACE:

SEVENTY YEARS SINCE THE SCHUMAN DECLARATION TO ‘MAKE WAR UNTHINKABLE AND MATERIALLY IMPOSSIBLE‘

What happened on 9 May 1950?

The French Government under Prime Minister Georges Bidault agreed officially to Schuman’s Proposal for a European Community. It therefore became official Government policy and is known as the

SCHUMAN DECLARATION. FULL TEXT English Translation

It called on all European countries to join with it to form a European Economic Community whose main aim was to bring eternal peace to the peoples who had known war for more than 2000 years.

What is it all about?

CLICK on the links to find the answers!

What was the Purpose of the Schuman Proposal?

Did this mark the real birth of Europe?

• It started a new epoch with a new entity: EUROPE

The first declared purpose of the Schuman Declaration is PEACE

• The act is ‘primarily for peace and to give peace a chance.’
• The aim is to provide the first bases for World Peace.
• LAW would replace WAR among the Community states 

Was the first Community to be open to all Europeans in East and West?

• The Community was open to all European countries
• The Community’s production was to be offered to the whole world
• Did this include Eastern Europeans?

Was the first Community offered as an experiment or designed as a solid foundation and necessary first action to transform Europe as a whole?

• Europe was born by the proposal
• The first Community would transform Europe
• Was it aimed at entirely changing European balance of power politics?
• Would the Community start to gather the European nations together?
• Europeans would be better off
• The coal and steel sector was a decisive leverage point

Why was coal and steel so important?

• Coal and steel are essential for weapons of war
• The industries are also essential for development
• National industrial basins would now progress fairly and justly
• European industries can plan strategically without fear of being bombed in wars
• This peaceful example of cooperation would permeate Europe like leaven in bread dough

How would placing these industries under a supranational authority help?

• It would ‘fuse the essential national interests’
• It would make war ‘materially impossible’
• War would become ‘unthinkable’ amongst cooperating interests
• Increased cooperation is only the first step to other fruitful development
• Fair and just trade leads to economic unity
• It would act against the formation of cartels

What were the main principles of supranationality?

• The essential was to create an independent authority above corrosive nationalism
• Such blind nationalism leads to war
• The High Authority (= today’s European Commission) would provide independent arbitration for European problems
• The High Authority would itself be subject to law and justice
• The aim would be to serve all Europeans and the world
• National decisions made together with such independent arbitration would become enforceable international law
• Equality, open information systems, better treatment of workers
• Raising living standards, promoting peace, aiding developing countries

Was an aim of the Coal and Steel Community to create a single market?

• Goods would circulate within the Community free of customs duties
• The new Community was neutral about nationalizations or private ownership
• The new Community drew on the experience of the International Ruhr Authority

Do a Common Market and a common currency figure in the proposal?

• Is a European economic community part of the proposal?
• Is monetary union implied in the original proposal?

When did the French Government first propose to other European States to create European Democracy and a Customs Union?

• On 24 July 1948 Schuman, then Prime Minister, proposed both the European Parliament and a Customs Union
• This led to the Council of Europe as the Guardian of Europe’s Human Rights and the means to stop gangsters like the Nazis or Communists seizing power.
• The aim was to prevent a catastrophe like the Holocaust ever happening again

What is the chronology of Schuman’s work on Human Rights and elimination of war in Europe?

• Schuman spent his whole life on this problem. The great institutions of Europe were created by him and his colleagues after WW2.
• Churchill gave his first speech on Europe when he was hosted by Robert Schuman on 14 July 1946

What are the five main democratic institutions of the European Community (as distinct from the present European Union).

• There are five main institutions allowing States, professional associations (trade unions, Enterprises, Consumers) and individuals to work together under the Rule of Law.
• The later treaties do not follow these democratic principles.
• All treaties should be investigated, analysed in the Council of Europe for adherence to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms