Of course EU needs to have the actual countries it is constituted of engaged in it.Ideologically the projecthas many predecessors. But the current EU started a

Of course EU needs to have the actual countries it is constituted of engaged in it.Ideologically the projecthas many predecessors. But the current EU started after the second world war. The entity considered the progenitor of EU is the European Coal and Steel community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Commun... This was peak cold war and US influence in Europe was non-neglible to say the least. While the reporting around the subject is a bit hyperbolical, strong Washington backing was always a cornerstone of the project https://web.archive.org/web/20220130132451/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/27/the-european-union-always-was-a-cia-project-as-brexiteers-discov/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220130132451/https://www.teleg...