The ESB had its origins in the emergence of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which established contacts with like-minded smaller groups in Europe during the late 1940s, setting up European Study Center and publishing a magazine Europa Unita.
On the back of this work they organised a conference in Rome in 1950 which was attended by Oswald Mosley, whose Union Movement was advocating closer European unity with its Europe a Nation policy, representatives of the Falange, allies of Gaston-Armand Amaudruz and other leading figures from the far-right.
[2] After submitting plans for a centrally organised Europe a second congress followed in 1951 at Malmö, the home of Per Engdahl, where it was agreed that the ESB would be set up as an alliance to this end.
[5] Continuing its activity despite the split, the ESB encountered difficulties in 1956 when a delegate was invited to the annual conference of the MSI.
[8] The ESB advocated the construction of an anti-communist and corporatist European empire, with common rules on defence and economy, under the leadership of a leader appointed by plebiscite.