European Political Community in Europe
Description of European Political Community
The Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union describes european political community in the following terms: [1] In the early 1950s ministers from the six member states of the European Coal and Steel Community drafted a constitution for a new form of democratic government to control the planned European Defence Community. The proposals were ambitious. There would be a two-chamber Parliament (the lower chamber directly elected, the Senate elected by national parliaments), a powerful appointed Executive Council, an advisory Council of National Ministers and a Court of Justice (see more in this European encyclopedia). This so-called European Political Community(EPC) would be able to levy taxes and would establish a Common Market. The collapse of the European Defence Community, voted down by France in 1954, led to the EPC being permanently shelved. Four years later the far more cautious Treaty of Rome inaugurated the European Economic Community and the long process leading to the European Union.
Resources
Notas y References
- Based on the book “A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein”, by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)