Despite numerous attempts to organize Europe under a single entity, it was not until the Schuman Declaration led by France when it became the cornerstone of this supranational entity with sovereign powers and institutions we know today as the European Union. Gone was the idea organized medieval Christianity, the utopia of Saint-Simon, Comte and Victor Hugo and military projects with geopolitical ambitions of domination.
The European integration arises from the need to rebuild after devastating consequences on social, economic and demographic that both world wars led on the old continent. In this sense and as a result of the Marshall plan boost cooperation between rival states just before capturing it with the creation of the ECSC and a rapprochement between France and Germany, expressed directly in the Schuman declaration. For this reason, that statement is one of the most ambitious step in the history of Europe, as not only pacified and reduced geopolitical tension between two of the central states of Europe but proposed cooperation between the two and put end the historic Franco-German antagonism. We recognize that the proposition resulting from the statement draws on the experience of international management system Rurh Basin.
With the Schuman declaration terminating the system of internationalization of the basin, entering Germany to its operation on an equal footing under the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The treaty was signed between Germany, Italy, France and the three Benelux states, came into force on July 23, 1952 (Mangas, and Linan A, D, 40:4,2006).
We must also emphasize that the membership of the process, took shape a community safety project based on the integration project. This project is built on a meta-securitization: the fear that Europe's future as its past was if allowed to fragmentation and fluctuations in the balance of power back. (Buzan, Wæver B, O, 353 1, 2005)
Schuman declaration opens European regionalism from the perspective of integration of states. In this sense we say that this process is a pioneer in regard to the transfer of sovereignty by states and the subsequent creation of autonomous institutions. Therefore, this paper provides the beginning of a long process of building the institutions and the European identity that reaches our days and he has done the EU may have powers in fields as diverse as economics, agriculture, transport and international cooperation . This regionalism emerged during the Cold War period, which is another factor that shapes the European bloc, and that is why it is relevant because, according to the thesis of Fawcett and Hurrell regionalism is a feature of the international order post Cold War ("regionalism in historical perspective", 1995), where regions become new international actors, as we illustrate in the case of other regional entities such as MERCOSUR.
References:
Buzan, B and Wæver, O: "The Europe" in idem: Regions and Powers, The Structure of International Security (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Fawcett, L: "Regionalism in historical perspective" in Idem and Hurrell, A: Regionalism in world politics (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Mangas, A, "the historical process European integration "in Idem and Linan, D: Institutions and Law EU (Tecnos, 2006)
