ABSTRACT
This chapter tells the story of the early history until the beginning of the 1990s. It presents the quantum leap of the Maastricht Treaty and takes us up to the period after the Lisbon Treaty. The chapter consists a few considerations on what made regional integration happen in Europe and what made it develop. The Soviet Union did not live up to agreements on free elections in Eastern Europe, and the Cold War had begun, with incidents' in Europe like the Prague coup d'etat 1948 and the Berlin Blockade 1948-49. The brief of the inter-governmental conference (IGC) was to look into institutional matters to prepare for the expected Eastern enlargement. On 9 May 1950 the French foreign minister Robert Schuman declared: Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. The chapter ends with a few considerations on what made regional integration happen in Europe and what made it develop.
