The history of how the European Union started is one main example that solely explains and proves intergovernmentalism as a valid theory when talking about the formation of the union. The fact that it was the six member states, not an organization, nor an entity or a company, the ones that started to move Western Europe towards integration demonstrates the central role and dominance that the member states have in the union. It was in the interest of this first six nation states that the formation took place, and that later involved other nation states that saw beneficial the idea of having a single market, a single currency, and a single economy as the solutions to the economic, political and social problems that some of the later members, like Spain and Portugal, were facing internally. Being the "International economic uncertainties and recession" another reason that "encouraged intergovernmentalism" (Nugent 503). The fact that other Western European nations, like Denmark and the UK, who first joined the union when it was being established, makes intergovernmentalism even more valid when referring to the European Union formation (Nugent 503). .
Moreover, after more than 10 member states joined the union, the next step that the nations were facing was that of constructing a well organized, not only economically, but now political union. To make this possible, a series of treaties were developed by the member nation states. Treaties like the Amsterdam and Maastricht treaties that during the evolution of the foreign and defense policies of the European Union, the main concern was also to build a union not only seen as an "Economic giant on the one hand and a political pygmy on the other" (Nugent 447), but to have a union with considerable international political influence as well. The Union's voice "Did not count for a great deal in respect of political and, more particularly, defense and security matters" (Nugent 447).
