Summary: Rising from the ashes of the Second World War, the European Union has been perhaps the most important development in modern European history. Initially, it only included those countries we think of as 'Western Europe.' Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, however, membership in the EU has expanded dramatically and rapidly and now includes some 27 nations. This has created not simply logistical complications, but a debate over what 'European' means. This month, historian Donald Hempson looks at two recent joiners -- The Czech Republic (which recently held the EU's rotating presidency) and Slovakia (which recently adopted the Euro currency) -- and how their histories have defined their approaches to European integration.
