The European Union - Significant Events Timeline

World War II brought much ruin and loss to Europe, and when it ended, nobody wanted to see anything like it happen again, so a group of Europe's leaders decided to prevent war amongst one another's countries from happening, they needed to bring their countries together.

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were the six founding countries.

Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the EU. This was the first of many enlargements of the "community" merger the EU. After this, goals of union and integration amongst member counties applied to more than just the original 6, thereby marking the start of what would eventually grow to apply to encompassing most countries in Europe. Furthermore, this marks the start of the issues and benefits associated with EU enlargement. Also the EU started to transfer money to create jobs and infrastructures in poorer areas and to protect the environment

The Fall of the Berlin Wall becomes the changing face in Europe. Also Greece, Spain and Portugal Join the European Union. In 1986 the Single European Act is signed, a treaty which creates the 'Single Market'. Reunification of Germany : When both East and West Germany are united October 1990.

The “four freedoms”: The single Market is completed with movements of goods, services, people and money. 1990 was the decade of two treaties: The Treaty of Maastricht was what created the EU in 1993 and the treaty of Amsterdam. The Treaty of Maastricht laid out some important new aims for the member countries, such as integrating their security and foreign policies, as well as kept goals already established by the ECSC, EEC, and FURATOM, such as further integrating their economies. Furthermore, this treaty changed the structure of the EU by organizing it into the "three pillars" - the community pillar, the foreign and security pillar, and the pillar of police and judicial cooperation.

Further expansion: The euro is now the currency for many Europeans.
In 2007 the Treaty of Lisbon is Signed: modified the rules originally laid out by The Treaty of Maastricht, making them better fit to deal with the issues that Europe/the world is facing today and better fit to deal with the larger size of the EU ("Taking Europe into the 21st Century"). The Treaty of Lisbon changed the structure of the EU so that ultimately it became more democratic and better able to accomplish its goals.

In 2008 A Financial crisis hits the global economy of the EU. The global economic crisis strikes hard in Europe. Climate change is still high on the agenda and leaders agree to reduce harmful emissions

Croatia becomes the 28th member of EU