Introduction

Abstract

The European Union will celebrate its 50^th anniversary in 2007. Europe can be proud of half a century of peaceful economic and political cooperation. The integration process triggered in 1957 has turned out to be not without problems, but the inherent dynamics of liberalization and cooperation have brought about a prosperous and growing community with continuing liberalization in many fields and with several rounds of enlargements. Thus the specific approach of combining multilateral regional policy cooperation and the activity of a supranational policy layer – with the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and the European Council as the four pillars – has worked. In addition to the traditional nation-state, there is a new political organization: a hybrid institutional setup. Major European personalities such as Jean Monnet, Paul-Henri Spaak, Walter Hallstein, Jacques Delors, Romano Prodi, Willem Duisenberg and many others have contributed to building the EU house.