Legal-historical analysis of the European integration: the Role of Robert Schuman

Abstract This paper focuses on the contribute and high influence given by Robert Schuman, who is one of the main founders of the European Union but the architect of the European integration project and of the idea of establishing an internal common market within a safe area, in order to get everything under a common management, that every country of the EU have agreed upon; the fairness and peace of commercial transactions are in here the main pillars which the internal market is built upon. He was born in Luxembourg, having a German citizenship; only after the restitution of the Alsace-Lorraine region to France in 1919, he acquired the French citizenship. During the II World War, he went to London to visit Charles de Gaulle, a French leader who was sent there in exile, and to join his government. When he came back to the national politics in France, he managed to hold high-level positions and became one of the most important negotiators for international treaties and other initiatives, including the Council of Europe, the Marshall plan and the NATO. All these initiatives were fundamentally aimed at keeping a regime of welfare with the major purpose of strengthening the cooperation within the Western alliance and to unite Europe. Noteworthy, he was so devoted to his country and to maintain a peaceful society, playing an active role also in the French Parliament, that he took part in the French resistance during the war, but was later captured and imprisoned by the Nazi forces. After the war ended, he drafted the Schuman Declaration in order to prevent future wars and to unite Europe. The following abstract wants to serve a preface to the content of the work and great commitment that this pioneer gave to the European implementation project in his vision for an actual united Europe, as the principal architect for several initiatives that lead to the final establishment of the European Union; starting from his Declaration (also called “Schuman Plan”) drafted and published in Paris on 9 May 1950, an international Plan basically aimed at promoting and maintaining peaceful relations within the European Community, also fighting for an overall control of production of coal and steel that should be guided by and placed under a common authority, that he developed together with Jean Monnet and which is considered nowadays the birth of the Union, celebrated every year as the so-called “Europe Day”. In his declaration, Schuman stressed the fact that the essential objective and purpose of France had been always that one of promoting and serving peace. He claimed that Europe was not made but there had been a war, thus it won’t be created suddenly or by means of an overall construction but rather trough concrete relationships, establishing a de facto solidarity first of all.