Thread by @chrisMLibDem

There have been a few occasions recently that I’ve been presented with the argument that ‘the EU wasn’t responsible for peace in Europe, that was NATO’, so rather than having to explain every time why this argument is wrong, I thought I’d make a quick thread to refer back to. 1/

NATO is a military alliance that was set up in 1949 to provide security for Western states against the growing threat of the USSR. It included European and North American states. It was not concerned with the relationships between European nations. 2/

The EU, however, started life as the European Coal & Steel Community (ECSC). It was created with the explicit purpose to make war between European states ‘not only unthinkable but materially impossible’. 3/

It aimed to achieve this by promoting economic and political interdependence between member states, thus making it too costly for European states to go to war with each other. 4/

This led to the creation of a single market in coal and steel. The ECSC and its single market evolved over half a century to the EU and single market as we know it today. 5/

To date, it seems to have worked. We are currently in the longest period of peace in Europe since records began. The role of the EU in promoting peace in Europe was formally recognised with the award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 6/

So next time someone tells you that it was NATO, not the EU, which was responsible for ending centuries of aggression between European nations, youbcan confidently tell them that they are incorrect. Feel free to refer them to this thread 7/

For more back ground reading see:

NATO: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO

ECSC: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_…

EU Nobel peace prize: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Nobe…

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