Amy Verdun 
European Union and Asia 
What is There to Learn?

Fifty years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, the European Union (EU) stands at a crossroads. It has all but completed its single market, has enlarged to twenty-seven member states, has introduced a single currency, is making progress on a common foreign and defence policy, has flirted with the adoption of a constitution and more. The European Community of six member states that at first merely collaborated on coal and steel, atomic energy and that created a customs union in the 1950s and 1960s, has progressed beyond belief so as to achieve these remarkable successes. The origins of the EU can be traced back to belligerent parties that decided it was best to leave their militaristic past behind and concentrate on creating something more positive and constructive. France and Germany had gone to war three times in a hundred years and felt the need to leave the past behind. It was clear that it was not only the decisions of the governments of France and Germany that made this new pacifism in Western Europe possible. Other countries played an important role as well.