Cold War security and economic structures

As the last excerpts have demonstrated, the European institutional structure is more complicated than just the EU. As you will see, the European space and the EU itself have both been influenced by and have influenced several other major institutions.

The next few sections will briefly consider some of the most important non-EU institutions that you need to be aware of.

When you read about the following institutions think about the following questions –

• Of which member states is the organisation composed?
• What does it do?
• Whose ‘side’ was the institution on during the Cold War?
• How important is it today compared to the past?