Treaty of Dunkirk

The Treaty of Dunkirk was signed on 4 March 1947, between France and the United Kingdom at Dunkirk in France, as a Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance against a possible German attack in the aftermath of World War II. It entered into force on 8 September 1947 and according with article VI paragraph 2 of its text, it remained in force for a period of fifty years.

According to Marc Trachtenberg, the German threat was a pretext for defence against the USSR.

This Treaty preceded the Treaty of Brussels of 1948 (also known as the "Brussels Pact"), which established the Western Union among Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, that became Western European Union in 1955, after the entry into force of the Treaty of Brussels of 1954 (also known as "Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT)"), when Italy and West Germany were admitted.

Since the end of World War II, most sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present organisations, institutions, and responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.

See also

• North Atlantic Treaty
• Treaty establishing the European Defence Community

Further reading