Bring Peace and Security back into the European Dream

The European integration process has its origins in a dream of at long last achieving peace on the European continent. The road towards that dream was reconciling France and Germany, and building a Franco-German axis of dialogue and co-operation. Integrating our economies was seen as a tool for sustaining this peace. But gradually, after the 1957 Treaty of Rome, attention focused on economics itself. What was originally a means to an end became an end in itself. Deepening economic integration between member states became the new dream so Europe could compete on global markets.