Talk:European Union

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Year of entry of the founding members

In the sources that I found [1][2] (from the official European Union website), it says that the founding nations joined the European Union in 1952. Are there any other sources that say otherwise? If not, I will undo the edit that changed them to 1957. Wynter (talk) 18:52, 5 May 2014 (CEST)

This page on enlargement mentions 1957... and it's on the same europa.eu web site, just one click away from both pages you mention. Even the question "Who's right?" doesn't make any sense!

Well, it's actually a matter of defining what exactly was the initial step to found the EU.

• One can consider it's the European Coal and Steel Community, founded in 1952 based on an idea that was developed first by Robert Schuman in his famous Declaration on 9 May 1950.
• One can consider it's actually the Treaty of Rome (signed in 1957, came into force on 1 January 1958), which established the European Economic Community. Both Communities were established with the same 6 founding members.
• Note that the European Union as such only exists since the Maastricht Treaty (signed 1992, came into force in 1993).
• Finally, the European Union as a single legal entity only exists with the Lisbon Treaty (signed in 2007, came into force in 2009).

As for the article... My suggestion would be to mention something like "(founding member)" instead of either date in the list, then explain under the list what this means, giving at least both 1952 and 1957 dates and maybe 1958 and 1993 as well. In that explanation the Schuman Declaration should probably be mentioned as well: this remains the most important single step that made Europe move from pure competition to cooperation. The 9th of May has for years become the Europe Day. Klipe (talk) 22:11, 5 May 2014 (CEST)

Check Wikipedia too, and more sources I have checked out through the internet:

Wikipedia - European Union - History

EUROPA - The history of the European Union (Here, the Treaty of Rome creates the Common Market)

Enlargement of the European Union - "The process of expanding the European Union (EU) through the accession of new member states began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community (the EU's predecessor) in 1952."

European History - Here, it states that specifically in the "The First Union: the ECSC" on the first paragraph, at the end, it states that it begins on July 23, 1952. "This body was called the European Coal and Steel Community and involved Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy and Luxembourg. It began on 23 July 1952 and ended on 23 July 2002, replaced by further unions."

Hope this helps in the process here --Goldenburg111 (talk) 00:12, 6 May 2014 (CEST)

I went ahead and changed the year to "founding member". Thanks everybody. Wynter (talk) 07:09, 6 May 2014 (CEST)