Introduction to European Integration
Founding Fathers visions
dr Stanisław Umiński
Research Centre on European Integration, University of Gdańsk
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Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Pan-Europa, 1923
 Europe as a political concept does not exist. This part
of the world includes nations and states installed in
the chaos, in a barrel of gunpowder of international
conflicts, in a field of future conflicts. This is the
European Question: the mutual hate of the
Europeans that poisons the atmosphere. (....) The
European Question will only be solved by means of
the union of Europe's nations. (...) The biggest
obstacle to the accomplishment of the United States
of Europe is the one thousand years old rivalry
between the two most populated nations of Pan-
E u r o p e : G e r m a n y a n d F r a n c e . . . 
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Speech of Aristide Briand in the presence of League of
Nations General Assembly, Geneva,
5th September 1929
 I believe that a sort of federal bond should exist between
the nations geographically gathered as Europe
countries; these nations should, at any moment, have
the possibility of establishing contact, of discussing
their interests, of adopting common resolutions, of
creating amongst themselves a bond of solidarity that
allows them, on suitable occasions, to face up to serious
circumstances, in case they arise. (...) Evidently, the
association will take place mainly in the economic
domain: this is the most pressing question...
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Jean Monnet (1888-1979)
"  We are not forming coalitions of states, we are uniting men
"  I am not an optimist; I am determined
"  There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild
themselves on the basis of national sovereignty, with its
implications of prestige politics and economic protection (...).
The countries of Europe are not strong enough individually to be
able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their
peoples. The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or
a European entity that would make them into a common
economic unit
"  To create Europe is to create peace
"  Continue, continue, there is no future for the people of Europe
other than in union
"  Make men work together show them that beyond their
differences and geographical boundaries there lies a common
interest
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1946, Winston Churchill s, the former British Prime
Minister, celebrated speech at Zurich University
 I wish to speak to you today about the tragedy of
Europe. (...) Yet all the while there is a remedy which,
if it were generally and spontaneously adopted by the
great majority of people in many lands, would as if by
a miracle transform the whole scene, and would in a
few years make all Europe, or the greater part of it, as
free and as happy as Switzerland is today. What is this
sovereign remedy? It is to recreate the European
Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it
with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in
safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of
United States of Europe. (...) I am going to say
something that will astonish you. The first step in
the recreation of the European Family must be a
partnership between France and Germany
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