50 YEARS EUROPE

Today is the 50th anniversary of EUROPE.

Roman Treaty

On March 24, 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, signed the Rome Treaty. This established a European Economic Community (Commun Market).

One of the most important persons participating was Paul Henri Spaak. He was thePrime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Foreign Affairs. His role in the creation of the EEC earned Spaak a place among the Founding Fathers of the European Union. His dream was already at that time to create a United Europe.

In 1958 the members opened their offices in Brussels and Brussels became the capital of Europe.

This picture represents the "Berlaimont" which houses the Eurpean Commission consisting of 27 Commissioners, one from each member state of the EU supported by an administrative body of about 23,000 European civil servants. Now 50 years later we are maybe approaching this target a , but it's still not yet completed.

The European Union (EU) is now a supranational and intergovernmental union of 27 states in Europe. It was established in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (The Maastricht Treaty), and is the de facto successor to the six above mentioned members of the beginning.

A lot of changements had therefore occured. No borders anymore, more then 90 % of the member states have the same money (Euro) and there is also a commun police, Europol (the name is a contraction of European Police Office) which is the European Union's criminal intelligence agency. Enjoying immunity from prosecution, Europol became fully operational on July 1, 1999.

There is still a lot to do, especially to change people's mentality from being only French, Belgian or German and to become a Europan French, Belgian or German. Most of the people are afraid they would loose their country's identity, traditions and their language.

Languages are the biggest barrier between the different countries and therefore also a big obstacle. If you cannot understand what your neighbor is talking about in your own city, how difficult is it then between countries !

I think the generation now, especially the older one, are not convinced about a united Europe. It will be much better in the next generation, already now there are so many youth exchanges and allow young people to open their minds learning languages and communicate between each other. They will see their part of the world in a completely different way.

But I can consider myself already as a European. Mr. Gattino is Italian, my son is a mixture and has two passports, Italian and German, we live in Belgium. My son lives with his Dutch girlfriend in Amerstam, but is domicilated in London. Mr. Gattino and I speak German together, with our son french (but he also speaks German) when we have Italian guests we speak Italian, when we have other guests usually French and when our son is here with his girlfriend we speak English. Now isn't that a European family ? And meanwhile the EU has become the largest economic entity and one of the largest political entities in the world, with 493 million people and a nominal GDP of €11.5 ($15.0) trillion in 2006. And that is already something. (Wikipedia)

If you want to read how I lived the beginning of Europe, when I had to follow my parents to Brussels a fact which has changed my life completely you can read it here

THE START OF EUROPE - I WAS FOURTEEN

The Justus Lipsius building, the headquarter of the EU Council in Brussels is a governing body that forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). The Europol building in Den Haag (Holland) Euro bills and coins