From Asean To Usean: A Possibility Of An Integration
...forming bonds with more than cooperation in mind. Its success has led world leaders into thinking of forming regional organizations similar to the EU. Considering this, let us discuss whether it is possible to transform the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to the Union of Southeast Asia' or not.
The Beginnings of an Integration
Although the primary impetus for European Integration was the need to prevent conflict between the European states, from the outset it also had a strong economic rationale. Jean Monnet, who had been appointed by then General Charles de Gaulle in 1946, was the principal architect of the plan for a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). He strongly favored Franco-German cooperation and European links with the US. He favored projects which went beyond mere cooperation' between governments and embreaced the idea of a fusion of interests' of the European people as a long-term goal.
The idea of the Monnet plan was to establish a system of joint regulation of the coal and steel industries of participating states. Cross-border trade barriers would be abolished and the industries would be regulated by a 'supranational' authority. The plan offered practical economic benefits for the participants by providing coal and steel producers with a larger market for their goods. The plan was designed to serve both national and wider European interest, and to address the six original members of the European Community's (EC) own objectives in pursuing co-operation.
When the ESCS was established by the Treaty of Paris in 1951, it eliminated in 1952 trade barriers (duties, quotas and dual pricing) on coal, steel and iron ore. It created a supranational authority (the High Authority), and also had a Council of Ministers, a European Assembly, a Court of Justice and a counsultative committee comprising producer, worker and other interests....
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