Hi there.

My name's Mrs. Tomassi, and I'm here to work with your new citizenship lesson today.

Hopefully you've got everything you need, and if you're all good to go, then we will get started.

So today's lesson title is Why was the EU formed? And that forms part of the unit which is How well has the UK adjusted to changing in relationship with the EU? So hopefully by the end of today, you'll be able to explain why the European Union was formed.

We're gonna look through some keywords in this session today, and there are two.

You'll see these in bold throughout, so keep an eye out for 'em.

And if you need to, you can refer back to them here.

The first is cooperation, which means working together to achieve the same end.

And the second is union, which is the act of being joined together for political purposes.

We'll make a start with the first of three learning cycles, which is What was the impact of World War II on Europe? So if we start with 1945, being a very significant year, because this marked the end of World War II, now, the impact that this had on Europe was huge.

So things like approximately 50 million people had died as a result of conflict, Russia and the USA emerged as new superpowers.

So when we say superpowers, what we are talking about is countries that have a huge global influence and power within the world.

And a lot of European countries had to be rebuilt.

The British and French colonial empires were weakened.

And in the years following the war, many countries gained their independence.

So what this is saying as well is Britain and France had a lot of colonies and they had a lot of countries that they colonised.

And then what happened after the war was those countries then became independent.

So you could say that then Britain and France lost power.

And this leads to two organisations.

So following World War I, before World War II, there was the League of Nations established, and this is an organisation for international cooperation, The aim of ensuring lasting peace.

Obviously, because this happened before World War II, it ultimately failed to prevent further conflicts, because World War II then happened.

But after World War II, another union was formed.

Any ideas? You might have heard of this one.

So this is the United Nations, and that's the flag there.

So if you've done any work on human rights, you might have heard of, like, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

This comes from this organisation.

So they formed to bring together countries from around the world, and the goal was to promote international cooperation, peace and security, and to prevent future conflicts.

So check for understanding now.

Which of the following was an impact of World War II? A, 50 million people had died, B, Britain has merged as a superpower, or C, the British Empire was stronger than ever? It was A.

So obviously with B, it wasn't Britain, it was the USA and USSR, and then the British Empire was weakened through the events.

We're now gonna have a look at some of the impact that World War II had on Europe.

Now, Europe as a whole is quite a big continent, so there was different impacts on different areas.

So Europe was devastated by the war, but the USA and the USSR, so that's the union of Soviet Socialist Republic, were able to recover more quickly.

Now, obviously the USA isn't Europe, but USSR is involved in Europe.

Now, Europe then found itself because of this is divided into east and west.

When we say east, we're talking about the communist-controlled Soviet Russia, which gained influence over Eastern European countries such as Czechoslovakia.

And so this then expanded their influence because they're then growing.

Now, this posed a threat to western capitalist countries who are more closely aligned with the USA.

So this is a bit of tension between the east and the west here.

Now, this division of Europe, because it's starting to divide between those that side in the USA and those side in with the USSR, has led to growing tensions between the countries.

An example, if you know much about history, then you'll know that the UK and the France were in the West and they were increasingly distrustful of the Soviet Union in the East, and vice versa.

Now, this is important, because what it meant was, again, if you know anything about the war and the impact it had on Germany, it meant that then Germany was divided into two parts.

So because of its role in starting World War II, Germany was divided.

Now, those two parts were between East Germany, which was became Soviet control, and West Germany was controlled by the allies.

Although over time, Germany did have more freedom to govern itself.

This was at the beginning of when World War II ended.

So Berlin located within East Germany was divided into East and West.

Now, that lasted until 1989.

So if you've ever heard of the Berlin Wall, that's the wall that was put up to separate East and West Germany.

And here you've got an image of the Berlin Wall being built.

So life in divided Germany was challenging.

Families were often separated and unable to see each other.

So some families didn't see each other for years because they were put on opposite sides of the wall.

Politicians from both East and West Germany would visit the other side of the wall to promote their respective opinions and try to convince citizens that life under their system was better.

We have a timeline now, so we'll have a look.

So if we start from 1947, this is when western European countries, so that includes France and the UK, began to cooperate more closely to counter the threat post by the Soviet Union.

So if you think, World War II ended in 1945, so we're now two years later, and then a further year later, the Treaty of Brussels was signed and that led to the formation of the Western Union, which we'll talk more about now.

So the Treaty of Brussels allowed Western Europe nations to better coordinate their political, military, and economic responses to the growing influence of the USSR in Eastern Europe.

So again, we are still talking about that link between the threat that's being imposed of the USSR in the east and the west.

Now, the cooperation, so you remember that being the key term, so this idea of them working together between the Western European unions, helped form what has become the European Union.

So if we're talking right back to how it's formed, this is building the foundations for the European Union based on what has happened after World War II.

Check for understand now, 'cause that is a lot of information that we've just gone through.

So can you correct Jacob by changing one word? "Following World War II, communist-controlled Soviet Russia began to extend its influence over Western European countries, expanding the power of the USSR." Take some time, see if you can work out which word you'd change and what you would change it to.

Did you manage to work out that it wasn't Western European countries, it had influence over the Eastern European countries, countries such as Czechoslovakia? And that moves us onto the first task for the session today.

Using at least two points, explain why some would agree with the following statement.

The foundations of the European Union lay in the devastating impact of World War II.

Take a bit of time to reflect and see if you can work out why some people would agree with that and see if you can come up with two reasons.

And then when you've done that and you're ready to feed back, if you unpause, and then we can go through it.

How did you get on? Hopefully you managed to realise that some people would agree with this statement.

Now, they could agree with it, and you might have said something like, "After World War II, Europe was devastated by the impact of war, but countries like the USSR and the USA were able to recover quickly.

Europe was between these two superpowers, and so countries needed to work together, otherwise they would have less influence in the world.

Another reason is because of the threat of the USSR.

Countries in Eastern Europe had already begun to work together more closely with the USSR and western countries needed to work together more closely to ensure they were not also swallowed up by the USSR's expansion.

So how did you get on? Did you manage to get something for that? If you did, that would be great.

So then we can move on to the second learning cycle, which is, How was the European Union formed? Obviously, we've seen in this first learning cycle some of the foundations that were laid, and we're talking now to the end of the 1940s, and now we are gonna continue on to looking at actually how it came together.

So it wasn't formed quickly.

It's not an overnight process.

Again, as I said, we've seen the foundations being laid in the late '40s and then over time it has come together.

So it involved a lot of cooperation between the western European countries and various treaties to promote a greater union between these governments.

This process was called supernational cooperation, which means countries and governments working together beyond their borders.

This means outside of their countries.

If you take a look, so we're skipping forward, so as we said, it wasn't a quick process.

We're skipping forward now to 1957.

This was when the Treaty of Rome was signed.

It was signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany.

Remembering, can you remember the difference between West and East Germany and who had control of each? And what they did was they established the European Economic Community, or you might see it as the EEC.

Now, the EEC tried to promote greater economic cooperation.

Can you think what that might be about? So we talk about economy, we're talking about, you know, how budgets of that country works.

And this is trying to improve that between these Member States that are part of it.

So Jacob says, "What was the point of the European Economic Community?" So it promoted trade between Member States, and this was the start of free movement of goods between partner states.

So what that's saying is the movement of goods and the trades, it means if you can trade more freely, then it's gonna help to promote each of those countries' economies because they can ship and receive goods more easily.

So as we say, as we just said there, it meant it was quicker and cheaper to sell to other Member States.

Obviously then, if you think, actually if you were trying to sell something and you've got people that you can sell it to and people that can give you products, then it makes it quicker and easier, which then in turn is gonna have a positive impact on their economies.

So true or false, the EEC made trade easier, which helped boost the economy of Member States? That's true.

Why is that true? Because the Treaty of Rome was the start of the process of free movement of goods, which made trade easier.

There were only six Member States in the original EEC.

So now we are moving on further.

So again, remember, take a note of the dates.

We're now moving to between 1973 and 1999, where more Member States joined.

For example, to show you some, so the UK and Ireland joined in 1973, you've got Spain in 1986, and 1990 is a newly reunified Germany.

So if you think we've said earlier about the Berlin Wall in 1989, after that, now, Germany have now regained themselves and they are reunified as one Germany.

So these states looked for ways to work together in cooperation to strengthen their economy, security, and social issues.

And this helped to establish the Schengen Agreement that allowed people to move between Member States without a passport.

So now we're not only talking about goods, we're talking about people can move freely between these countries to promote free movement between the areas.

Now, we are moving forward now to 1993 when we've got the Maastricht, the Maastricht Treaty, and that officially created the EU or the European Union.

You might see it more, you could see it as either, so you can see it as the EU or you can see it as the European Union.

So it's good to remember that if you see those, just the two words, we're talking about the European Union.

So many countries chose to join the EU, and that included founding members like France and Germany who helped set the criteria for others to join.

And the EU's continued to expand over the years.

There, you've got the Treaty of Maastricht on display in Rome in 1997.

A good thing to note is that the EEC remained in place too.

So some countries that didn't wanna be part of the EU, they opted to remain part of the EEC, and that still impacts today as well.

So it's a good thing to know.

Check for understanding.

Which treaty formally established the European Union? A, the Treaty of Rome, B, the Schengen Agreement, or C, the Treaty Of Maastricht? It was C, so well done if you've got that.

Now, we are gonna move on to the next task.

So can you complete the table to explain how the EU was formed? You've got the Treaty of Rome and the Maastricht Treaty.

What was its purpose, and examples of countries involved? Take some time, and then when you're ready, you can unpause and we can go through together.

How did you get on with that? Your table could look something similar to this.

So in terms of the Treaty of Rome, its purpose was to establish greater economic cooperation and it created the European Economic Community, which is the EEC.

Examples of countries, so originally there were six countries, which included France and Italy, later expanded to include countries such as the UK and Ireland.

Whereas the Maastricht Treaty was to establish the EU, the European Union.

And the EEC remained in place too because some countries did not want to join the EU.

In 1993, countries like the UK and France were members and they established a criteria for others to join.

The EU continues to expand even today.

That brings us to the end of that learning cycle.

So hopefully you've got an understanding how it was formed.

Now, we're gonna start to look at, Did the EU create a stronger Europe? So we've got Laura here and she says, "The EU helps to create a stronger and safer Europe.

But how can a collection of countries really help each other to be stronger and safer in a world where there are more global superpowers than there were in 1945?" So that's a good question, and this is something we're gonna look at now.

So we'll start with the economy.

Remember, we have been talking about this earlier with the EEC and what the economy is.

So it is this idea of the state of a country or region in the terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and supply of money, how those countries provide those goods and services and what the money is like in their countries.

So a strong economy provides more resources for government spending.

Most members of the EU share a common currency.

So if we start with the currencies, and most members of the EU share a common currency, so that's the euro.

If you've ever been on holiday and you've had to change up the money, you've got euros if you went to any of those EU countries.

Now, this helps to strengthen economy ties between Member States.

So to give a bit of an example, businesses in Germany can buy and sell products from Spain without needing to exchange currencies, which is important as well, 'cause sometimes when you exchange currencies, you could get charged extra money for it or it could be difficult to change up the money.

So this has made it a lot easier.

Now, EU trade has grown significantly, and over 26 million jobs have been created in the past 20 years.

True or false? A shared currency makes it harder to buy and sell within the EU.

Did you manage to work out that that is false? Why is that false? So the Euro has made it easier for businesses to buy and sell in the EU because they do not need to swap their currency into another currency like dollars or pounds.

Now, we're gonna have a look at security.

So security is about how safe a country is.

So this could be from international threats, so like invasions from other countries, or neighbouring countries becoming unfriendly.

It could also be things like terrorism inside of a country.

Aisha says, "How might the EU help keep Member States in Europe safe? So the EU does not have an army on its own.

It works in cooperation, so we've got that key word there again, so that working together with the members to deploy forces to places where needed.

So since EU Member States began working together back in 1948, remember this key year when the United Nations formed and a lot of countries were working together, there has been no war in Europe, so the EU helps to keep the peace and ensure Member States resolve their differences by talking to each other, not fighting.

Which of the following is an example of how security has been promoted by the EU? Is it A, Member States can buy and sell more easily to each other, B, Member States can invade other countries by using the EU's army, or C, Member States can discuss their problems with each other to ensure peace not conflict? See if you can work out the correct answer.

It is C.

Now, A, yes, is true, but that doesn't impact security, that would impact the economy.

So now we're gonna look at social.

So this is the social challenges that countries face.

Things like poverty, education, human rights issues, and the problems can threaten stability if the population becomes unhappy and seeks change through protest or force.

Now, members of the EU must agree to uphold human rights, which can include giving women the right to vote and recognising people with disabilities as full citizens.

As a result of the EU, 2.

7 million young people have travelled for their studies on the Erasmus programme which has allowed students the opportunity to go into another EU country and study for a period of time.

Member States which joined the EU in 2004 have 17% of children living in poverty.

This is down from 41% when they first joined.

This is helping to support countries with some of their social issues, such as, in this case, improving child poverty.

So check for understanding now.

Which of these is a social issue, trade between unions, terrorism, or education? It is education.

Did you manage to remember? So the trade one would be improving the economy, and the terrorism one links to security.

For the final task for this session, in response to Aisha, can you give three examples of how Europe is stronger because of the EU? So Aisha says, "The EU has created a stronger Europe." Take some time, come up with your examples, and then when you're ready, unpause and we'll feed back.

Did you manage to get three examples? If you did, your answers could include, so, the EU has helped to create a stronger Europe because of the economic cooperation.

This means the single currency, the Euro, has allowed businesses to buy and sell without exchanging money.

The EU has improved social issues too.

Member States who have joined the EU must safeguard human rights and have reduced poverty.

Security is about keeping a country safe.

As a result of the EU, Member States are talking to each other to solve their problems and not resorting to wars.

They also come to help each other if there's a threat such as strengthening the Polish border after the invasion of Ukraine.

How was your responses? Did you get examples like that, or did you have some different ones? Now, that brings us to the summary of this lesson.

So to summarise why the EU formed, the EU was not formed overnight.

It took many decades of greater cooperation between countries in Europe to achieve the union.

The devastating impact of World War II meant that Europe had to work together in a changing world.

Today, the EU promotes stronger ties between Member States by ensuring security, economic prosperity, and improved social conditions.

The existence of the EU has been a key factor in stopping conflict and promoting peace on the continent of Europe.

Hopefully this session today has given you a bit of an introduction into the European Union and how it was formed, and that you have a little bit of a better understanding of this.

Thanks so much for working with me today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.