The European Coal and Steel Community was a small economic organization founded in the 1950s by six European countries. Its purpose was to enforce these states in their fight against the Cold War. Their example motivated other countries on the old continent and they announced their will to join the community. This is how the supranational congregation got larger and slowly turned into a new organization, including 27 European member states governed by common laws in fields such as economy, policy, security etc. The name of this new alliance is the European Union. Its rulers considered that a monetary union would increase the economic power of their organization. Therefore they implemented the common currency, the euro.