United Europe: Economic, educational, and political integrations

Ini­tial po­li­ti­cal steps to­wards uni­fi­ca­tion of Euro­pean na­ti­ons on le­vel terms, i.e. on non-he­ge­mony terms, we­re ma­de wit­hin the pe­riod bet­we­en the two World Wars. The­se en­de­a­vo­urs cul­mi­na­ted with The Tre­aty esta­blis­hing the Euro­pean Coal and Steel Com­mu­nity (ECSC), which was sig­ned on 18 April 1951 in Pa­ris by Fran­ce, West Ger­many, Italy, Bel­gi­um, Net­her­lands, and Lu­xem­burg. The Tre­aty of Ro­me, esta­blis­hing the Euro­pean Eco­no­mic Com­mu­nity (EEC) and the Euro­pean Ato­mic Energy Com­mu­nity (Eura­tom), sig­ned in Ro­me on 25 March 1957 bro­a­de­ned the eco­no­mic in­te­gra­ti­ons, and fi­nally the Ma­a­stricht Tre­aty sig­ned on De­cem­ber 1992 en­vi­sa­ged the esta­blis­hment of eco­no­mi­cal and mo­ne­tary union. Eco­no­mi­cal uni­fi­ca­tion was fol­lo­wed by in­te­gra­tion pro­ces­ses in the fi­eld of edu­ca­tion that we­re ma­ni­fe­sted in jo­int in­sti­tu­ti­ons and pro­jects for im­pro­ving the ex­per­ti­se and mo­bi­lity of stu­dents, te­ac­hers and re­se­ar­chers. As far as the po­li­ti­cal in­te­gra­tion of Euro­pe is con­cer­ned, di­ver­gent di­rec­ti­ons oc­cur­red af­ter the World War II: the first, stre­a­ming to­wards the esta­blis­hment of the union of Euro­pean na­ti­ons, whi­le the se­cond was re­flec­ted in fo­un­ding of Atlan­tic, na­mely Euro-Atlan­tic or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons. Furt­her­mo­re, the­re has been a con­stant strug­gle ever sin­ce bet­we­en tho­se advo­ca­ting a tig­hter fe­de­ra­tion and tho­se wis­hing a lo­o­ser union of Euro­pean sta­tes. Po­li­ti­cal in­te­gra­tion is fol­lo­wed by at­tempts to cre­a­te a fun­da­men­tally jo­int Euro­pean iden­tity ba­sed on mu­tual cul­tu­ral he­ri­ta­ge. Eco­no­mic, edu­ca­ti­o­nal, and po­li­ti­cal in­te­gra­ti­ons wit­hin the fra­me­work of Euro­pean Union are an ex­pres­si­on of pan-na­ti­o­nal aspi­ra­ti­ons, which co­uld – if suc­cessful – re­sult in es­ta­blis­hment of a s­in­­gle Eu­ro­­p­ean na­t­io­n,­ f­o­u­n­ded on­ t­he­ ci­vil-ter­ri­t­o­­rial pr­in­­c­i­ple. ­