Foreword
In 1846, the novelist Victor Hugo urged the governments of the main European powers to "form a fraternity of Europe." This concept, once a humanist-pacifist ideal of philosophers and visionaries, did not begin to take practical political form, however, until after World War II, when the need to ensure that such a conflict never occurred again provided the impetus for a closer degree of cooperation among European nations.The European Union (EU) has expanded four times in the half century since six core nations — Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands — set about creating a single market…
