In the time‐scale of history, sixty years is very short. For centuries, ever since the Greeks and the Romans, since the Normans and the Germans, not to mention the British and the French, the peoples of Europe have constantly waged war on each other. During the last century alone, from 1914 until 1918 and from 1939 until 1945, merciless wars inflamed the European continent causing hatred and massive destruction, leaving its peoples bled white and prey to starvation.

What is the situation of Europe today, only sixty years on?

Europe is at peace. Europe is democratic. Europe is prosperous. War has become unthinkable among the peoples which have united within the European Union. The dense web of commercial, economic, political and legal links they have built between them are such that it is difficult to realise nowadays that the blitz on London, the flattening of Dresden and the occupation of Paris by the German army only took place around sixty years ago.

In simple terms, the present situation might be described as follows: the European Union (EU) has its own law‐making institutions, including a Council composed of Ministers who are members of national governments of the Member States, and a directly elected European Parliament. The Council and the European Parliament share the power of co‐deciding legislative, administrative and budgetary acts, which are proposed by the Commission.