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THE HISTORIC PATH TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

Sharing the new common market healed some of the hard feelings between the countries that had just been at war with each other, and led industry toward peaceful uses of materials that had previously been used for war. The ECSC was the first step in the process that led to the EU as we now know it. In fact, the ECSC’s goal has been largely achieved today—goods move freely across borders, with little paperwork and few if any customs duties (the fees that are paid when goods travel between countries). In 1957, the Treaty of Rome set up the European Economic Community, the EEC. The goals of the EEC went further than ECSC’s goals for free trade. These new, more ambitious goals included social progress, economic

ABOVE: On March 19, 1958, the first meeting of the European Parliamentary Assembly was held in Strasbourg under the presidency of Robert Schuman.

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