ABSTRACT
In 1946, in Zurich, Winston Churchill launched the concept of the ‘United States of Europe’: this led to the creation of the Council of Europe in 1949. In 1947, General Marshall offered American aid to Europe on the condition that its States set up an organisation to administer it: this prompted the creation in 1948 of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation, the precursor of the OECD. Also in 1948, in Brussels, the five European Allies, faced with the hostility of the USSR, created the Western European Union.
