Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/To begin with, the post-war Europe was faced with a need for a closer economic union as the only possible means of overcoming the disastrous effects of WWII. Likewise, in view of the ever-present danger of conflicts both between France and Germany, and between Western Europe and the Soviet Union, a political union was also a necessity. These were realized in the creation of the European Community of Steel and Coal on the economic level, accompanied with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the political one. The ECSC soon came to be the foundation of the European Economic Community, the first international organization devoted to cooperation in the spheres of economy, politics, along with social and cultural matters. This foundation stage extended to the end of the 1950s, closing with a defined set of common policies.