Today, 63 years ago on 25 October 1948 the European Movement was formally created. Duncan Sandys was elected President and Léon Blum, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak became Honorary Presidents.

The first major achievement of the European Movement was the creation of the Council of Europe in May 1949 as well as the College of Europe in Bruges and the European Centre of Culture in Geneva.

The origins of the European Movement date back to July 1947, at a time when the cause of a United Europe was being championed by notables such as Winston Churchill in the form of the Anglo-French United European Movement (UEM).

The UEM acted as a platform for the coordination of organisations created in the wake of World War II. As a result of their efforts, the congress of “The Committee for the Coordination of the European Movements” took place in Paris on 17 July 1947 with the participation of the “European League for Economic Cooperation” (ELEC), the “Union of European Federalists” (UEF), the “European Parliamentary Union” (UPE) and the “Anglo-French United European Movements” (UEM). Meeting again on 10 November 1947 they changed their name to Joint International Committee for European Unity and retained this name until after the 1948 Congress of The Hague. Presided over by Winston Churchill, it called for a political, economic and monetary Union of Europe, and led to the creation of the European Movement on the 25 October 1948.

Since its foundation, the European Movement has been led by prominent European public figures such as Robert Schuman, Walter Hallstein, Enrique Baron Crespo, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Mario Soares, Jose Maria Gil-Robles and Pat Cox.

With the help of its many influential, knowledgeable and enthusiastic members, the European Movement is a driving force in the promotion of further European integration and is known as the main and most recognised platform of pro-European organisations.

Today, 42 National Councils and 32 International Member Associations work towards bringing together representatives from European associations, political parties, enterprises, trade unions and individual lobbyists. This Pan-European structure is complemented by the secretariat of the European Movement International (EMI) based in Brussels.