Introduction

The idea of European unification is as old as the European idea of the sovereign State. Yet the spectacular rise of the latter overshadowed the idea of European union for centuries. Within the twentieth century, two ruinous world wars and the social forces of globalisation have discredited the idea of the sovereign State. The decline of the monadic State found expression in the spread of inter-state cooperation. And the rise of international cooperation caused a fundamental transformation in the substance and structure of international law. The changed reality of international relations necessitated a change in the theory of international law. The various efforts at European cooperation after the Second World War indeed formed part of this general transition from an international law of coexistence to an international law of cooperation. ‘Europe was beginning to get organised.’ This development began with three international organisations. First: the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (1948), which had been created after the Second World War by sixteen European States to administer the international aid offered by the United States for European reconstruction. Second: the Western European Union (1948, 1954) that established a security alliance to prevent another war in Europe. Third: the Council of Europe (1949), which had inter alia been founded to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe.