EU treaties

From Wikinfo

Contents 1 Current treaties 2 Future Treaties 3 Acknowledgement 3.1 References

Current treaties

European integration is at present based on four founding treaties

• The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was signed on 18 April 1951 in Paris, entered into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002.
• The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC).
• The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), which was signed (along with the EEC Treaty) in Rome on 25 March 1957, and entered into force on 1 January 1958.
  • These Treaties are often referred to as the "Treaties of Rome". When the term "Treaty of Rome" is used, only the EEC Treaty is meant.
• The Treaty on European Union, signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, entered into force on 1 November 1993.
  • The Maastricht Treaty changed the name of the European Economic Community to simply "the European Community". It also introduced new forms of co-operation between the Member State governments - for example on defence, and in the area of "justice and home affairs". By adding this inter-governmental co-operation to the existing "Community" system, the Maastricht Treaty created a new structure which is political as well economic. This is the European Union (EU). The three aspects of the strucutre; community, the political and the economic; are known as the "three pillars" of the treaty.

The founding treaties have been amended on several occasions.

• When new Member States acceded in 1973 (Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom), 1981 (Greece), 1986 (Spain, Portugal) and 1995 (Austria, Finland, Sweden).

There have also been more far-reaching reforms bringing major institutional changes and introducing new areas of responsibility for the European institutions:

• The Merger Treaty, signed in Brussels on 8 April 1965 and in force since 1 July 1967, provided for a Single Commission and a Single Council of the then three European Communities.
• The Single European Act (SEA), signed in Luxembourg and the Hague, and entered into force on 1 July 1987, provided for the adaptations required for the achievement of the Internal Market.
• The Treaty of Amsterdam, signed on 2 October 1997, entered into force on 1 May 1999.
  • It amended and renumbered the EU and EC Treaties.
  • Consolidated versions of the EU and EC Treaties are attached to it.
  • The Treaty of Amsterdam changed the articles of the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty), identified in that document by letters A to S, into numerical form.
• The Treaty of Nice, signed on 26 February 2001, entered into force on 1 February 2003. The Treaty of Nice, the former Treaty of the EU and the Treaty of the EC have been merged into one consolidated version.

Future Treaties

Further changes will probably be made to the Treaties as a result of the Convention on the Future of Europe and of the Treaty on the Accession of 10 new Member States, which was signed on 16 April 2003 to enter into force on 1 May 2004.

There is also a draft EU constitution, which is mainly a consolidation of the above but which includes some changes variously described as "tidying up" and "[dangerous] centralism".

Acknowledgement

Based on text from the EU website which states "� European Communities, 1995-2004 Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated. Where prior permission must be obtained for the reproduction or use of textual and multimedia information (sound, images, software, etc.), such permission shall cancel the above-mentioned general permission and shall clearly indicate any restrictions on use."

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "EU_treaties" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_treaties, used under the GNU Free Documentation License