CREATION OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

The process of European integration was launched soon after the end of the World War II. It relies on tragic experiences connected with the largest and also most tragic armed conflict in human history, caused by Nazi Germany. After the war, in Europe, and more specifically in its western part, there arose conditions favourable for the start of a new, planned integration of the countries of the Old Continent. Western European countries, though very weakened after the war (destroyed economy, infrastructure, human resources), were, however, as never before agreeable to the necessity of defending basic human rights and democratic values. Western European leaders decided to undertake coordinated actions aiming at the reconstruction of European countries and their economies and introduction of a new political order, which could guarantee the security of nations and give a chance for their successful development in the future.
The genesis of the integration process in Europe after the World War II: In the process of planning the introduction of a new political order in post-war Europe, it was acknowledged that the key task was the reconstruction of European economies. Western European leaders realised that only efficient and effective European economy would be a foundation on which new safety and development structures could be built. The American aid plan for Europe - the European Recovery Plan, called the Marshall Plan, was a great support for those plans. At that time the actions of the Soviet Union, a former ally, which after the war began violently affirm its supremacy in the controlled area of Central and Eastern Europe, openly promoting antidemocratic communist ideology, became disturbing and at the same time mobilizing the Europeans. Only common, coordinated actions could provide European countries with the force with which