"The European Parliament and the building of Europe": this is the name of series of short films, available from this week on the website of the European Parliament (www.europarl.europa.eu) until 25th March, the day of the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaties that established the Community. The purpose is to provide general information on the history of the integration process, within the wider context of worldwide events. The first video "shows as specifies a note from Parliament Europe at the start of war, in 1939, at the birth of the integration process" through to "the first official meeting of the Council of Europe", in Strasbourg in 1949. The video is accompanied by period comments and original voices, with translations. There are also many photos of the highlights of the period: the destruction caused by the air bombs, the release from Nazi-Fascism, the start of the physical rebuilding of the countries destroyed by the war and the democratic institutions. They obviously include with explanations the foundation of the first federalist movements, the role of some leading figures such as Winston Churchill, the first project of European Constitution drawn up by Alexandre Marc and Altiero Spinelli.
