The European Movement was formally created on 25 October 1948 to promote political, economic and monetary union within Europe and was responsible for setting up the Council of Europe in May 1949. Formerly known as the Joint International Committee for European Unity, Duncan Sandys (later British Conservative MP and successively Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, the Colonies, and Minister of Defence under Macmillan) was elected President and Léon Blum, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak were elected as Honorary Presidents. The British Section of the European Movement was founded in 1949, and throughout the 1950s and 1960s it campaigned for the UK to join the EEC.