EUROPEAN UNION WORLD

Unity of the West

The creation of various economic, political and defence organisations in Eastern and Western Europe reinforced the division of Europe into two blocs. Great Britain, France and the Benelux countries dealt with questions of mutual assistance in the event of an attack on any of those countries.

In March 1948 they6 established in Brussels the Western European Union (WEU) which obliges the contracting parties to collectively defend them-selves in the case of an armed attack. (7) Fearing that Western Europe might in the long term become too independent (or become communist) in the political and military field, the United States decided to continue its military presence in Europe.(8)

The United States invited the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway and Portugal to unite in their defence efforts, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was established in April 1949. An armed attack on any NATO member country would be taken as an attack on all NATO countries. (9).

West European countries accepted the American proposition (10) since that meant a partial reduction in the tax burden on the domestic taxpayers. Italy was included in NATO from its inception, although it is not an Atlantic State. The United State had a paramount vision about the question of defence. The Americans, as well as the French, wanted to include Italy in the family of West European States, although it was a member of the Axis, in order to avoid its isolation, which would create fertile soil for any communist onslaught. In addition, Italy could provide a strategic contribution to the South ank of the Alliance.

The defence club of the West now had an intercontinental dimension. Meanwhile, the WEU, as a European defence institution, went into hibernation.  Economic cooperation of the West European countries in the post-war period took place within the OEEC. Defence was organised first by the Dunkirk Treaty (1947) of Great Britain and France (against Germany), then the WEU (against Germany and the then Soviet Union), and next NATO (against the Soviet bloc).

Political cooperation, as the third pillar of Western unity, was ignored, but not for long. Political cooperation also started to develop in Europe. The Hague was the site of the European Congress in May 1948 for the consideration of issues linked with the creation of a United Europe. The congress was, in essence, to take up two approaches to that issue. The first was the unionists (minimalists’) model.

The British and the Scandinavians (the Protestants) argued that European unity could be achieved through intergovernmental consultations. The second, the federalist model, was favoured by the French (the Catholics). The federalists wanted a more formal organisation of European political cooperation: a political institution with real and supra-national powers.

The subsequent debate led to the creation of the Council of Europe. The Statute of the Council, according to the British–Scandinavian model, was signed in London in 1949, but its headquarters was, and still is, in Strasbourg. (11) The Council of Europe is mainly occupied with issues relating to human rights, freedom of the media, health, law and human mobility.

The real basis for a political union within the Council of Europe was modest, since it excluded the defence issues, while the participation of neutral states precluded the possibility of a common foreign policy. The principle of unanimity in the Council made it difficult to agree on important problems. 

The Yalta division of the world found a special partnership in the Eastern part of Europe, too. The Soviet Union wanted to consolidate its grip in the East and created political (Cominform, 1947), economic (Comecon, 1949) and defence (Warsaw Pact, 1955) alliances there.

The Warsaw Pact was created only after the entry of West Germany into NATO.