The correct answer is:
1. Schuman Plan proposed (1950)
2. European Coal and Steel Community created (ECSC) (1952)
3. European Economic Community created (EEC) (1957)
4. European Union founded (EU) (1993)
Explanation:
1. Schuman Plan: On May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered his famous "declaration", considered as the first official proposal in which a realistic project of European unity was specified. The "Schuman declaration", inspired by another of the parents of Europe, Jean Monnet, was based on a fundamental proposal: to create a Franco-German economic community with the objective of the common use of the coal and steel resources of both countries. Once this bilateral agreement was sealed, the community would be opened to the rest of the countries in order to create a large federation in which goods, people and capital would circulate freely.
2. European Coal and Steel Community: It was an international organisation, under the Treaty of Paris 1951, signed by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, seeking to "produce and distribute arrangements for coal and steel and to set up an autonomous institutional system to manage it". It was based on the principles of "common market, common objectives and common institutions". It was founded on July 23, 1952 and started to operate for the coal market on 10th February 1953 and on the 1st May 1953 for the steel market.
3. European Economic Community: On March 25, 1957 two treaties were signed in Rome that gave life to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). The signatories of the historic agreement were Christian Pineau for France, Joseph Luns for the Netherlands, Paul Henri Spaak for Belgium, Joseph Bech for Luxembourg, Antonio Segni for Italy and Konrad Adenauer for the Federal Republic of Germany. The ratification of the Treaty of Rome by the Parliaments of "the Six" (the same countries than ECSC) took place in the following months and came into force on January 1, 1958.
4. European Union: The treaty of Maastricht signed on February 7, 1992 in the Dutch city of Maastricht and entered into force on November 1, 1993, is the cornerstone in the process of integration of the European Union as it adds a politico-legal dimension to the treaties already in force (Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the Constitutive Treaty of the European Economic Community (EEC)) which referred to mainly to an economic integration. Its main objective was to direct the European Union to a common foreign and monetary policy, together with the creation of a Central Bank for the year 1999. Likewise, the treaty sought to initiate a serious consideration on common policies of defense, citizenship and environmental protection.
