When did the EU come into being?
Description
This article is from the European Union FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout with numerous contributions by others.
When did the EU come into being?
The European Union as an umbrella organisation has come into existence only
in November 1993, after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. Its
constituent organisations were founded/organised as below:
1952
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was
established by the Treaty of Paris (1951).
1954
The European Defence Community (EDC) Treaty, signed in
Paris (1952) and ratified by all five other ECSC
member states, was vetoed by a majority of left-wing
and right-wing radicals in the French Assemblie
(August 30th). The Treaty had provided for a European
army, a common budget and common institutions, among
which a directly elected Common Assembly and for this
Assembly to study ways of creating a federal
organisation with a clear separation of powers and a
bicameral parliament. The French veto against the EDC
Treaty also meant the end of the draft Treaty
establishing a Political Community, approved by the
ECSC Assembly on 10 March 1953.
1958
The European Economic Community (EEC) and the European
Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were established by
the twoTreaties of Rome (1957).
1967
The institutions of the ECSC, EEC and Euratom were
merged, with a single European Commission replacing
the ECSC High Authority, EEC Commission, Euratom
Commission. A single +European Parliament; (though
officially still called the European Parliamentary
Assembly) replaced the three virtual Assemblies of the
Communities, too, although the members of these
Assemblies had always been the same people acting in
different capacities on different matters.
1979
For the first time, Members of the European Parliament
were elected directly by the people of all Member
states (June 7-10).
1987
The Single European Act of 1987 provided the
implementation provisions for the Single European
Market[1], and it codified agreement on majority
voting in the Council[2] on a range of questions. It
also formally codified the European Co-ordination in
the Sphere of Foreign Policy, which was known as
European Political Cooperation and dating back to the
1970 Davignon report.
1993
The European Union was established by the Maastricht
Treaty which came into force in November 1993. It
created an explicit three-pillar structure with a new
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) replacing
the Single Act provisions in this field, and codifying
the Co-operation in the field of Justice and Home
Affairs (JHA). It also reexpanded the scope of the
EEC, to include provisions for an Economic and
Monetary Union with a single European currency from
the end of the century onwards, and it re-baptised the
EEC to simply European Community (EC).
1996
A new Intergovernmental Conference (IGC, ie a round of
negotiations over changes to the Treaties) will start
in Turin on March 29. As the debate over the European
Union is likely to focus strongly on the IGC in the
course of this year, we have added a special
section[3] on it to this list.
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