EUR-Lex - xy0026 - EN - EUR-Lex Text Treaty of Maastricht on European Union The Treaty on European Union (TEU) represents a new stage in European integration since it opens the way to political integration. It creates a European Union consisting of three pillars: the European Communities, Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (JHA). The Treaty introduces the concept of European citizenship, reinforces the powers of the European Parliament and launches economic and monetary union (EMU). Besides, the EEC becomes the European Community (EC). BIRTH The Treaty on European Union (TEU), signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, entered into force on 1 November 1993. This Treaty is the result of external and internal events. At external level, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the outlook of German reunification led to a commitment to reinforce the Community's international position. At internal level, the Member States wished to supplement the progress achieved by the Single European Act with other reforms. This led to the convening of two Inter-Governmental Conferences, one on EMU and the other on political union.

The Hanover European Council of 27 and 28 June 1988 entrusted the task of preparing a report proposing concrete steps towards economic union to a group of experts chaired by Jacques Delors. The Dublin European Council of 28 April 1990, on the basis of a Belgian memorandum on institutional reform and a Franco-German initiative inviting the Member States to consider accelerating the political construction of Europe, decided to examine the need to amend the EC Treaty so as to move towards European integration. It was the Rome European Council of 14 and 15 December 1990 which finally launched the two Intergovernmental Conferences. This culminated a year later in the Maastricht Summit of 9 and 10 December 1991. OBJECTIVES With the Treaty of Maastricht, the Community clearly went beyond its original economic objective, i.e. creation of a common market, and its political ambitions came to the fore. In this context, the Treaty of Maastricht responds to five key goals: strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the institutions; improve the effectiveness of the institutions; establish economic and monetary union; develop the Community social dimension; establish a common foreign and security policy.

STRUCTURE The Treaty has a complicated structure. Its preamble is followed by seven titles. Title I contains provisions shared by the Communities, common foreign policy, and judicial cooperation. Title II contains provisions amending the EEC Treaty, while Titles III and IV amend the ECSC and EAEC Treaties respectively. Title V introduces provisions concerning common foreign and security policy (CFSP). Title VI contains provisions on cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs (JHA). The final provisions are set out in Title VII. EUROPEAN UNION The Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union, which consists of three pillars: the European Communities, common foreign and security policy and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. The first pillar consists of the European Community, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and Euratom and concerns the domains in which the Member States share their sovereignty via the Community institutions. The process known as the Community method applies in this connection, i.e. a proposal by the European Commission, its adoption by the Council and the European Parliament and the monitoring of compliance with Community law by the Court of Justice. The second pillar establishes common foreign and security policy (CFSP), enshrined in Title V of the Treaty on European Union.

This replaces the provisions of the Single European Act and allows Member States to take joint action in the field of foreign policy. This pillar involves an intergovernmental decision-making process which largely relies on unanimity. The Commission and Parliament play a modest role and the Court of Justice has no say in this area. The third pillar concerns cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs (JHA), provided for in Title VI of the Treaty on European Union. The Union is expected to undertake joint action so as to offer European citizens a high level of protection in the area of freedom, security and justice. The decision-making process is also intergovernmental. INSTITUTIONS In the wake of the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty also expands the role of the European Parliament. The scope of the cooperation procedure and the assent procedure has been extended to new areas. Besides, the Treaty creates a new codecision procedure which allows the European Parliament to adopt acts in conjunction with the Council. This procedure entails stronger contacts between the Parliament and the Council in order to reach agreement. Besides, the Treaty involves Parliament in the procedure for confirming the Commission. The role played by the European political parties in European integration is recognised.

They contribute to forming a European awareness and to expressing the political will of the Europeans. As regards the Commission, the duration of its term of office has been extended from four to five years with a view to aligning it to with that of the European Parliament. Like the Single Act, this Treaty extends qualified majority voting within the Council to cover most decisions under the codecision procedure and all decisions under the cooperation procedure. To recognise the importance of the regional dimension, the Treaty creates the Committee of the Regions. Made up of representatives of the regional authorities, this Committee plays an advisory role. POLICIES The Treaty establishes Community policies in six new areas: trans-European networks; culture. ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION The EMU puts the finishing touches to the single market. Economic policy consists of three components. The Member States must ensure coordination of their economic policies, provide for multilateral surveillance of this coordination, and are subject to financial and budgetary discipline. The objective of monetary policy is to create a single currency and to ensure this currency's stability thanks to price stability and respect for the market economy.

The Treaty provides for the establishment of a single currency in three successive stages: the first stage, which liberalises the movement of capital, began on 1 January 1990; the second stage began on 1 January 1994 and provides for convergence of the Member States' economic policies; the third stage should begin by the latest on 1 January 1999 with the creation of a single currency and the establishment of a Central European Bank (CEB). Monetary policy is based on the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), consisting of the CEB and the national central banks. These institutions are independent of the national and Community political authorities. Special rules apply to two Member States. The United Kingdom has not proceeded to the third stage. Denmark has obtained a protocol providing that a referendum shall decide on its participation in the third stage. SOCIAL PROTOCOL Thanks to the social protocol annexed to the Treaty, Community powers are broadened in the social domain. The United Kingdom is not a signatory of this protocol.

Its objectives are: promotion of employment; improvement of living and working conditions; adequate social protection; The Treaty of Maastricht or the European Union (1992) - The history of the European Union and European Citizenship The institution of a Citizenship of the Union . The great step ahead: the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The introduction of an European currency, the Euro, was decided. It would take place following a three phase scheme: From 1990 to 31 December 1993. Its objective would be a completely free circulation of capitals. From 1 January 1994 to 1 January 1999. The member countries must coordinate their economic policies in order to achieve some objectives, fixed quantitatively and known as convergence criteria : reduction of inflation and interest rates, control of government deficit and debt and respect of normal fluctuation margins provided for by the exchange-rate mechanism on the European Monetary system. The countries that reached those objectives could pass on to the third phase. During this phase, in the European Council held in December 1995 in Madrid, a definitive name was given to the new European unique currency, the euro.

From 1 January 1999 to 1 January 2002. Establishment of a European Central Bank (ECB) , fixing of exchange rates and introduction of a single currency. The so called Euroland, countries that went through to the third phase in 1999, consisted of eleven countries: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and Finland. Four countries: Greece, United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden remained for different reasons out of Euro area. Euro notes, the new European currency The Treaty of the Union instituted as one of the objectives of the Union the search of social and economic cohesion among the diverse regions and countries of the community. To achieve it, it was agreed that a denominated Cohesion Fund , created in 1994, would provide less developed regions and countries with financial aid focused on sectors as environment or transport infrastructures. The member States eligible to receive this aid were those whose GDP per capita was inferior to 90% of the Union average and comply with convergence criteria . The Cohesion countries were Spain, the most benefited state, Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The TEU has also meant a noticeable advancement in the EU competences in fields as economic and monetary policy, industrial policy, Transeuropean networks and transport policy, educational networks, etc. In spite of this reforms, the common agricultural policy (CAP) still absorbed more than a half of the whole Union budget. As regards educational affairs, the TEU limited the Union role to promote intergovernmental cooperation. The European Union launched different programmes (Socrates, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci) to facilitate contacts and combined work among Euroepan students and teachers. Regarding the European Union institutions, the TEU introduced important changes: the Parliament increased its competences, the Ministers Council was denominated henceforth Council of the European Union , the Commission received the official name of Commission of the European Communities, the Court of Justice , the Court of Auditors and the Economic and Social Committee reinforce their competences, a Committee of the Regions was established, and, the founding of the European Central Bank was foreseen at the beginning of the third phase of the economic and monetary union. As far as the second pillar is concerned, the Common foreign and security policy (CFSP) allows to undertake common actions in foreign policy.

The European Council , where decisions must be adopted unanimously, agrees the principles and general orientations of the CFSP. The Treaty on European Union raised Western European Union (WEU) to the rank of an integral part of the development of the Union and commissioned it the mission of elaborating and implementing decisions and actions with defence implications. The raw reality, in the form of the conflict in former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo) has shown that, unfortunately, the construction of a UE Common Foreign and Security Policy was still a long term objective. USA and NATO went on being the main actors in defence affairs, and the European States have still a very weak political will and capacity to carry out their own policy. Albanians slaughtered by Serbian troops in Kosovo The third pillar is based on Police and judicial cooperation (PJC) in criminal matters as terrorism, illegal immigration, asylum policy, drugs traffic, international crime, etc. The foundation of the Europol (European Police Office) , embryo of a future European police, was one of the most outstanding changes in this sphere.

It is also necessary to point out that in 1990 the denominated Schengen Convention , that developed the Schengen Agreement, was signed so as to build an European Union without frontiers. The difficult ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht The ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht by the national parliaments was brimmed with difficulties. The symbolic year of 1992 was gloomed by three crisis that braked the pro-Europe impulse brought about by the signing in Maastricht of the TUE on 7 February 1992: Firstly, Europe went through a serious and deep economic crisis that caused governments and public opinion to focus on economic problems, seting aside the European construction; Secondly, there were serious monetary tensions that challenged the European Monetary System and the objective of the economic and monetary union (EMU); Thirdly, the EU appeared unable to implement a common foreign and security policy in the crisis of Yugoslavia, and kept powerless observing how war came back to our continent after many years of peace. In this conditions, the first ratification process took place in Denmark.

The NO to the Treaty of Maastricht won in a referendum for a scarce difference of 50.000 votes. A eurosceptical wave extended to the other member countries. However, the ratifications of the Treaty were gradually taking place in the rest of the countries. In France, the YES won with a scarce 51.4% of the votes in favour of the TEU. Negotiation with Denmark started and the Copenhague government was granted with a special protocol, known, in the EU parlance, as opting out clause, that is to say, the possibility of not following the other members when the third phase of the EMU began -a similar clause got United Kingdom when TEU was signed- and in all defence matters. On 20 May 1993, Danish people approved in a referendum this agreement with 53.8% of YES votes. Celebrating the Treaty of Maastricht The Treaty of Maastricht came into force on 2 November 1993. The Treaty forsaw their own future revision in view of the successive enlargements of the Union.

The development of the European Union (1993-1996) and the new enlargement to the "Europe of the Fifteen" (1995) In Decembe 1994, the mandate of Jacques Delors , as president of the European Commission concluded. His substitute was the former Luxembourg prime minister , Jacques Santer . Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission (1996-1999) In spite of the difficulties that the Union was going through and the dramatic transformation of the world in those years, the candidatures to accesion to the EU continued being submitted to Brussels: Austria in 1989, Malta and Cyprus in 1991, Finland, Norway and Switzerland in 1992. This last country retired its candidature a few months later after a referendum. Negotiations with Austria, Sweden, Finland and Norway began in 1993 and were quite easy due to the high economic development of those countries. The ratification of the Treaties was accomplished in 1994. However, Norwegian people rejected again the accession to the EU.

The NO to the European Union won in a referendum with 52.2% of the votes. It was the second time that Norway refused to join the community. On 1 January 1995, the fourth enlargement of the EU took place with the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden. The Europe of the Fifteen was born. The Europe of the Fifteen (1995) In early 1996, in the European Council of Turin, an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) commenced with the purpose of elaborating a new treaty that reformed the Treaty of Maastricht. The objectives were focused on developing the Europe of citizens, fomenting the EU role in international politics, reforming the institutions and tackling a new enlargement to the the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe. After a long and intricate negotiation, the member States governments reach an agreement in the European Council held in Amsterdam on 16-17 June 1997. The Treaty of Amsterdam was born.

Search WWW A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union --M-- M Maastricht Treaty The Maastricht Treaty , signed in 1992 and officially known as the Treaty on European Union ( TEU ), introduced several important additions and amendments to the Treaty of Rome and signalled an advance in European integration equalled only by the 1986 Single European Act . Its central features were the incorporation of EMU into the Treaty of Rome and the establishment of the European Union by the addition of two new fields of policy co-operation: the Common Foreign and Security Policy ( CFSP ) and Justice and Home Affairs ( JHA ). These new areas were formulated as intergovernmental responsibilities, rather than responsibilities of the Community 's supranational organisations, an arrangement which was to a limited extent modified subsequently in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam , where the Community was given more of a role in providing policy guidelines and certain aspects of JHA were transferred to come under the competence of the Commission and the Court of Justice . Together with the Community itself (the 'first pillar'), the CFSP and JHA constitute the second and third of the 'three pillars ' of the EU .

The ratification of the Treaty came near to disaster on several occasions, notably when it was rejected in a Danish referendum in 1992, accepted by the narrowest of margins in a French referendum the same year and only passed by the UK 's House of Commons after unprecedented pressure by the whips in 1993. Nevertheless, it survived a second Danish referendum and a ruling by the German Constitutional Court to pass eventually into law, its obscure phraseology reflecting an uneasy compromise between integrationists and those who favoured a Community of voluntarily co-operating nation states. A notorious example of deliberate ambiguity was ' subsidiarity ', a concept explained by the British government as recognising the vital role of national law-makers and simultaneously explained by Continental politicians as recognising the superior role of the Community . The main legislative part of the Treaty concerned the implementation in progressive stages of economic and monetary union . There would be a fixed timetable, leading to the adoption of the single currency by those member states which were able to meet the convergence criteria . The British government accepted participation up to the preparatory Stage Two, but arranged an opt-out from Stage Three, when exchange rates would be irrevocably locked, the euro would come into being and national currencies would be abolished.

As an inducement to hold another referendum , Denmark was also offered an opt-out from the single currency (as it was on defence and on certain other provisions of the Treaty). Other features of the Treaty included the expansion of the structural funds to supply aid to the poorer EU regions; the widening of the competence of the Community to cover new areas such as education , culture, public health, consumer protection, trans-European networks , industry and the environment ; the creation of the position of Ombudsman ; and the formal introduction of the concept of citizenship of the Union. A significant intention at Maastricht was to expand the Community 's social dimension by introducing policies covering such aspects as workers' health and safety, workplace conditions, equal pay and the consultation of employees. These aspects were to be included in a separate section of the Treaty, called the Social Chapter . The British government refused to agree to this section being incorporated in the body of the Treaty and insisted on an opt-out . The 11 other members who supported the Chapter agreed to make it a protocol to the Treaty, which was not binding on the UK .

In 1997 the incoming British Labour government cancelled the opt-out and agreed to sign the Social Chapter , which was thereupon put back into the main text as revised by the Treaty of Amsterdam . After the Maastricht Treaty had been signed, such was the complexity of the drafting and so great the exhaustion of the negotiators that many of the protagonists had little clear idea of its meaning. The British team was temporarily proud that the word 'federal' appeared nowhere in this most federalising of documents. The public throughout Europe was baffled, and the unemployment that ensued in the mid to late 1990s did nothing to endear voters to a Treaty that they mistrusted and suspected of being at least partly responsible (through its strict monetary prescriptions) for the recession. In 1997 the Treaty would undergo substantial amendment in the Treaty of Amsterdam . To distinguish between the original document and the later version, it is sometimes convenient to call the first one the Maastricht Treaty , reserving the technically correct Treaty on European Union for the amended and consolidated text.

Likewise, those parts of the Treaty of Rome that were amended at Maastricht may be referred to equally correctly as being contained in the Treaty of Rome , the consolidated Treaty establishing the European Community (the revised name of the Treaty of Rome ), or the Maastricht Treaty . (See also Common Foreign and Security Policy , EMU , Justice and Home Affairs , Treaty of Amsterdam , Treaty on European Union and Treaty of Rome .) MacDougall Report The 1977 MacDougall Report , named after its chairman, an economic adviser to the CBI, was produced at the request of the Commission . It studied public finance in the context of the EEC 's move towards greater integration, concluding that the Community should be spending 2-2.5% of member states' total GDP in a pre-federal stage; 5-7% in a federal small-public-sector stage; and up to 25% in a federal large-public-sector stage. The EU currently spends some 1.2% of the aggregate GDP of its members. Thus the MacDougall Report recommended something between a doubling and a 20-fold increase in Community spending, depending on the degree of Europe 's federal ambition.

Although MacDougall's budgetary conclusions, which were aimed at redistribution and economic adjustment, have been conveniently shelved, they had an uncomfortable logic; and both the structural funds and the concept of convergence owe much to his report. Macmillan, Harold (1894-1986) As Conservative prime minister, Harold Macmillan applied to join the EC in 1961, perhaps prompted by his own world-weary pessimism born of the UK 's relative lack of economic success, its weakening Commonwealth ties and its declining post-imperial influence in the world. There was also pressure from the USA , which supported a united Europe . In 1962, after Macmillan and his friend President Kennedy had signed a nuclear missile agreement, President Charles de Gaulle vetoed the UK 's application, doubtless mistrusting an increased Atlanticist influence within the Community . MacSharry reforms Named after the (Irish) CAP commissioner, the MacSharry Plan rescued the GATT negotiations from failure in the early 1990s. The reforms were designed to maintain farm incomes through direct aid rather than through guaranteed product prices, thereby reducing surpluses.

The immediate effect of MacSharry's proposals was to raise the cost to the EU budget and to create a complex mountain of paperwork for farmers. Major, John (1943-) As prime minister from 1990 to 1997, John Major entered the scene as a pro-European, bent on being at the heart of Europe , in contrast to his predecessor Margaret Thatcher . He negotiated the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, his proud claim being to have obtained opt-out s from the final stage of EMU and from the Social Chapter . Indeed, at the time little more could have been achieved to protect the UK 's position, which differed for good reason from that of its Continental partners. Circumstances changed when Denmark rejected the Treaty by referendum in June 1992, for the Treaty of Rome can only be amended by the unanimous consent of the member states, and Maastricht was an amending Treaty. Three months later the European exchange rate system collapsed. There was intense speculation that France , too, would reject Maastricht and monetary union. Meanwhile the UK , in the grip of recession, could not sustain the high interest rates resulting from German reunification.

A costly attempt to keep the pound locked to the D-Mark ended in failure and the pound was forced to devalue. It was Major , as Thatcher 's chancellor, who had brought the UK into the Exchange Rate Mechanism ( ERM ), but it was his successor in that post, Norman Lamont, who paid the price by resignation. All the quaintness of a rain dance and about the same potency. John Major when prime minister, misreading the prospects for EMU , The Economist, September 1993 When the Maastricht Treaty came to be ratified in 1993 the parliamentary arithmetic was on a knife-edge. The ERM fiasco was seen as a warning of the consequences of fixed exchange rates, and a few backbenchers risked their careers to vote against the constitutional implications of the Treaty. Only merciless whipping and a threat to dissolve Parliament enabled the bill to be passed. From that moment onwards, Major was a victim of events. His communautaire reputation dissolved in the ' beef crisis ', but the British economy recovered strongly, benefiting from the pound's unsought freedom.

The 'bastards' (as Major imprudently described his dissident fellow Conservatives who opposed the UK joining the single currency ) proved to speak for a majority of the party. But they were outmanoeuvred by a group of senior cabinet ministers, led by Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, who considered that scepticism over EMU would damage the UK 's wider European interests. Major was defeated by Tony Blair 's Labour Party in the 1997 general election, bequeathing him a sound economy in which the secret of rising employment and growth without inflation appeared to have been unlocked by Conservative reforms. To the end even those closest to Major could not fathom his own position on EMU ; and his equivocation on European matters doubtless contributed something to his undoing. Malta See Tangentopoli . Mansholt, Sicco (1908-1995) As Commissioner for Agriculture from 1958 until 1972, Mansholt was responsible more than anyone for the creation of the CAP .

Although he brought them unheard of prosperity, he was never popular with farmers, being a strong advocate of eliminating inefficient small farms and setting limits to high guaranteed prices. For a brief period in 1972 and 1973 he was president of the Commission , the only Dutchman to have held that post. Marshall Plan (Marshall Aid) The Marshall Plan , named after General Marshall, a US army chief of staff in World War II, was a unique act of American generosity and enlightened self-interest. Under the Plan, which was overseen by what later became the OECD , the USA distributed some $12,500 million over three years, starting in 1947, to 16 European states, on condition that they set about dismantling trade barriers and systematically organising their own recovery. The instigator of Marshall Aid , as it became known, was President Truman, who perceived clearly the Soviet threat to a weakened Europe . Under pressure from Stalin the East European satellite countries refused to accept any Marshall Aid ; the USSR also attempted, not without success, to raise fears in leftist circles in the West over German revanchism and American imperialism.

Together with NATO , the Plan signalled the emergence of the USA as a European power and set Europe on a path to freedom and prosperity on a hitherto undreamed of scale, creating a debt of honour which France alone has sometimes been reluctant to acknowledge. Mediterranean policy In 1995, the EU launched a 'Euro-Mediterranean Partnership' with 12 Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Cyprus , Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta , Morocco , Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the Palestinian territories). The ambition, promulgated especially by France and Spain , was to create a free trade zone by 2010, to balance the eastward shift in the EU 's centre of gravity that would follow from enlargement . Another motive was to aid stability in an area plagued by poverty and threatened by Islamic fundamentalism. The initiative was accompanied by promises of aid and resounding declarations about 'shared values', human rights , cultural co-operation, the 'fight against international crime' and so forth. In view, however, of the region's ancient antagonisms and the unsavoury character of some of its regimes, it was not unduly cynical to see this as a somewhat empty exercise.

MEP Elected member of the European Parliament . Merger Treaty Signed in 1965 and brought into force in 1967, the Merger Treaty established a single Commission and a single Council of Ministers for the three existing Communities (the ECSC , Euratom and the European Economic Community ). Mergers See Competition and merger policy . Messina Conference In 1954 plans to create a European Defence Community (to replace the national armies of Germany , France , Italy and the Benelux countries with a common defence force) collapsed when France refused to ratify the Treaty. The 'Six' thereupon turned their attention to the idea of a customs union , meeting at Messina in 1955 to entrust Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium with the production of the report which led to the 1957 Treaty of Rome and the formation of the EEC , or Common Market . The UK sent an emissary to the Messina Conference to argue the case for a free trade area , but did not attend the Conference officially, an omission to which British Europhiles attribute many of their country's subsequent difficulties with Europe . The diagnosis appears flawed. The Six paid no attention to the British position.

Nor could the UK have lightly abandoned Commonwealth trade, cheap food and the Anglo-American nuclear alliance in favour of expensive French farm produce, a protectionist Community and Euratom . Thus Charles de Gaulle , who saw the incompatibility clearsightedly, had good reason to veto the UK 's entry throughout the 1960s, even if he was also motivated by the wish to avoid having a rival for European leadership. Mitterrand, François (1916-96) Few more subtle politicians than François Mitterrand have held centre stage in Europe . A Vichyite until the war turned against Germany , thereafter a devotee of the Resistance, he was twice defeated in French presidential elections before finally becoming president in 1981, a position he held until the year before his death. Mitterrand 's tenure of office was marked initially by nationalisations of French companies and other manifestations of socialism, followed by a retreat to the centre ground and reprivatisation in response to electoral setbacks to his Socialist Party in the Assembly. With Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Commission President Jacques Delors , who were his political contemporaries and closest allies, he was one of the architects of the Maastricht Treaty .

Viscerally hostile to German reunification, he conceived the Treaty as a bargain. Germany would be allowed to reunite; in return, France would dilute the power of the Bundesbank by incorporating the D-Mark into an EU -wide monetary system. Together, France and Germany would continue to decide the fate of Europe , as they had under his and Kohl 's predecessors, first Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer and subsequently Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt . Mitterrand 's political position was progressively eroded by domestic problems. His policy of matching the strength of the D-Mark at any cost led to an overvalued franc and was one of the causes of growing unemployment. Scandal followed scandal in political and business circles, undermining popular faith in the French élites. Obsessed with grandeur, Mitterrand lavished public money on prestige projects, but did little to modernise the economy and equip it to meet the challenge of globalisation . In 1992 he put the Maastricht Treaty to a referendum , in expectation of a ringing endorsement, but won approval by the narrowest of margins. His attitude to Margaret Thatcher was one of mingled fascination and confrontation.

Although he supported her in the Falklands War and it was under his presidency that the British rebate was finally agreed, they opposed each other over the EU at every turn. He was an integrationist; she believed in a Europe of sovereign nations. He was protectionist; she was a free trader. He (with Kohl ) created the Franco-German Eurocorps ; she was convinced that security rested solely on NATO and the Atlantic Alliance. He was a complex intriguer, capable of considerable deviousness, whereas she was not averse to taking her opponents head on. Mitterrand 's declining years were spent trying to create a legend of his own life story to pre-empt the possibly chillier judgment of historians. In Europe , he will be remembered chiefly for his political adroitness and his calculated devotion to the Franco-German relationship. Mixed agreement An agreement falling within the competence both of the EU and of the member states. Monaco European Union (EU) | European organization | Britannica.com European organization Alternative Titles: EU, Europäische Union, Union Européenne, Unione Europea Related Topics France European Union (EU), international organization comprising 28 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies.

Originally confined to western Europe , the EU undertook a robust expansion into central and eastern Europe in the early 21st century. The EU’s members are Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , Croatia , Cyprus , the Czech Republic , Denmark , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hungary , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , the Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Sweden , and the United Kingdom . The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty , which entered into force on November 1, 1993. The treaty was designed to enhance European political and economic integration by creating a single currency (the euro ), a unified foreign and security policy, and common citizenship rights and by advancing cooperation in the areas of immigration, asylum, and judicial affairs. The EU was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, in recognition of the organization’s efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe. Flag of the European Union. Composition of the European Union. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. An overview of the European Union’s history.

© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Origins The EU represents one in a series of efforts to integrate Europe since World War II . At the end of the war, several western European countries sought closer economic, social, and political ties to achieve economic growth and military security and to promote a lasting reconciliation between France and Germany. To this end, in 1951 the leaders of six countries—Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany—signed the Treaty of Paris , thereby, when it took effect in 1952, founding the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). (The United Kingdom had been invited to join the ECSC and in 1955 sent a representative to observe discussions about its ongoing development, but the Labour government of Clement Attlee declined membership, owing perhaps to a variety of factors, including the illness of key ministers, a desire to maintain economic independence, and a failure to grasp the community’s impending significance.) The ECSC created a free-trade area for several key economic and military resources: coal, coke, steel, scrap, and iron ore.

To manage the ECSC, the treaty established several supranational institutions: a High Authority to administrate, a Council of Ministers to legislate, a Common Assembly to formulate policy, and a Court of Justice to interpret the treaty and to resolve related disputes. A series of further international treaties and treaty revisions based largely on this model led eventually to the creation of the EU. Creation of the European Economic Community Similar Topics League of Nations On March 25, 1957, the six ECSC members signed the two Treaties of Rome that established the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)—which was designed to facilitate cooperation in atomic energy development, research, and utilization—and the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC created a common market that featured the elimination of most barriers to the movement of goods, services, capital, and labour, the prohibition of most public policies or private agreements that inhibit market competition, a common agricultural policy (CAP), and a common external trade policy. Signing of the Treaty of Rome, March 25, 1957. AP Images The treaty establishing the EEC required members to eliminate or revise important national laws and regulations.

In particular, it fundamentally reformed tariff and trade policy by abolishing all internal tariffs by July 1968. It also required that governments eliminate national regulations favouring domestic industries and cooperate in areas in which they traditionally had acted independently, such as international trade (i.e., trade with countries outside the EEC). The treaty called for common rules on anticompetitive and monopolistic behaviour and for common inland transportation and regulatory standards. Recognizing social policy as a fundamental component of economic integration , the treaty also created the European Social Fund, which was designed to enhance job opportunities by facilitating workers’ geographic and occupational mobility. Map showing the composition of the European Economic Community (EEC) from 1957, when it was formed … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Significantly, the treaty’s common market reforms did not extend to agriculture. The CAP, which was implemented in 1962 and which became the costliest and most controversial element of the EEC and later the EU, relied on state intervention to protect the living standards of farmers, to promote agricultural self-sufficiency, and to ensure a reliable supply of products at reasonable prices.

British Culture and Politics Like the ECSC, the EEC established four major governing institutions: a commission, a ministerial council, an assembly, and a court. To advise the Commission and the Council of Ministers on a broad range of social and economic policies, the treaty created an Economic and Social Committee. In 1965 members of the EEC signed the Brussels Treaty , which merged the commissions of the EEC and Euratom and the High Authority of the ECSC into a single commission. It also combined the councils of the three organizations into a common Council of Ministers. The EEC, Euratom, and the ECSC—collectively referred to as the European Communities—later became the principal institutions of the EU. The Commission (officially known as the European Commission ) consists of a permanent civil service directed by commissioners. It has had three primary functions: to formulate community policies, to monitor compliance with community decisions, and to oversee the execution of community law. Initially, commissioners were appointed by members to renewable four-year terms, which were later extended to five years. The Commission is headed by a president, who is selected by the heads of state or heads of government of the organization’s members.

In consultation with member governments, the president appoints the heads of the Directorate-Generals, which manage specific areas such as agriculture, competition, the environment , and regional policy. The Commission has shared its agenda-setting role with the European Council (not to be confused with the Council of Europe , an organization that is not an EU body), which consists of the leaders of all member countries. Established in 1974, the European Council meets at least twice a year to define the long-term agenda for European political and economic integration. The European Council is led by a president, an office that originally rotated among the heads of state or heads of government of member countries every six months. Upon the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the presidency was made permanent, with the officeholder being selected by European Council members. The president of the European Council serves a term of two and a half years—renewable once—and functions as the “face” of the EU in policy matters. The first “president of the EU,” as the office came to be known, was former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy .

Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The main decision-making institution of the EEC and the European Community (as the EEC was renamed in 1993) and the EU has been the Council of the European Union (originally the Council of Ministers), which consists of ministerial representatives. The composition of the council changes frequently, as governments send different representatives depending on the policy area under discussion. All community legislation requires the approval of the council. The president of the council, whose office rotates among council members every six months, manages the legislative agenda. Council meetings are chaired by a minister from the country that currently holds the presidency. The exception to this rule is the Foreign Affairs Council, which, since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, is under the permanent supervision of the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. The Common Assembly, renamed the European Parliament in 1962, originally consisted of delegates from national parliaments. Beginning in 1979, members were elected directly to five-year terms. The size of members’ delegations varies depending on population.

The Parliament is organized into transnational party groups based on political ideology—e.g., the Party of European Socialists , the European People’s Party , the European Federation of Green Parties, and the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party . Until 1987 the legislature served only as a consultative body, though in 1970 it was given joint decision-making power (with the Council of Ministers) over community expenditures. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) interprets community law, settles conflicts between the organization’s institutions, and determines whether members have fulfilled their treaty obligations. Each member selects one judge, who serves a renewable six-year term; to increase efficiency , after the accession of 10 additional countries in 2004 the ECJ was allowed to sit in a “grand chamber” of only 13 judges. Eight impartial advocates-general assist the ECJ by presenting opinions on cases before the court. In 1989 an additional court, the Court of First Instance, was established to assist with the community’s increasing caseload. The ECJ has established two important legal doctrines.

First, European law has “direct effect,” which means that treaty provisions and legislation are directly binding on individual citizens, regardless of whether their governments have modified national laws accordingly. Second, community law has “supremacy” over national law in cases where the two conflict. The promulgation of the Lisbon Treaty signaled the acceptance of these legal doctrines by national courts, and the ECJ has acquired a supranational legal authority. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Throughout the 1970s and ’80s the EEC gradually expanded both its membership and its scope. In 1973 the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland were admitted, followed by Greece in 1981 and Portugal and Spain in 1986. (The United Kingdom had applied for membership in the EEC in 1963 and in 1966, but its application was vetoed by French Pres.

Charles de Gaulle.) The community’s common external trade policy generated pressure for common foreign and development policies, and in the early 1970s the European Political Cooperation (EPC; renamed the Common Foreign and Security Policy by the Maastricht Treaty), consisting of regular meetings of the foreign ministers of each country, was established to coordinate foreign policy. In 1975 the European Regional Development Fund was created to address regional economic disparities and to provide additional resources to Europe’s most deprived areas. In the same year, members endorsed the Lomé Convention , a development-assistance package and preferential-trade agreement with numerous African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Members also made several attempts to manage their exchange rates collectively, resulting in the establishment of the European Monetary System in 1979. Single European Act The Single European Act (SEA), which entered into force on July 1, 1987, significantly expanded the EEC’s scope. It gave the meetings of the EPC a legal basis, and it called for more intensive coordination of foreign policy among members, though foreign policy decisions were made outside community institutions.

The agreement brought the European Regional Development Fund formally into the community’s treaties as part of a new section on economic and social cohesion that aimed to encourage the development of economically depressed areas. As a result of the act, there was a substantial increase in funding for social and regional programs. The SEA also required the community’s economic policies to incorporate provisions for the protection of the environment, and it provided for a common research and technological-development policy, which was aimed primarily at funding transnational research efforts. Trending Topics Opium Wars More generally, the SEA set out a timetable for the completion of a common market. A variety of legal, technical, fiscal, and physical barriers continued to limit the free movement of goods, labour, capital, and services. For example, differences in national health and safety standards for consumer goods were a potential impediment to trade. To facilitate the completion of the common market by 1992, the community’s legislative process was modified. Originally, the Commission proposed legislation, the Parliament was consulted, and the Council of Ministers made a final decision. The council’s decisions generally needed unanimity, a requirement that gave each member a veto over all legislation. The SEA introduced qualified majority voting for all legislation related to the completion of the common market.

Under this system, each member was given multiple votes, the number of which depended on national population, and approval of legislation required roughly two-thirds of the votes of all members. The new procedure also increased the role of the European Parliament. Specifically, legislative proposals that were rejected by the Parliament could be adopted by the Council of Ministers only by a unanimous vote. The Maastricht Treaty The Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union), which was signed on February 7, 1992, created the European Union. The treaty met with substantial resistance in some countries. In Denmark, for example, voters who were worried about infringements upon their country’s sovereignty defeated a referendum on the original treaty in June 1992, though a revised treaty was approved the following May. Voters in France narrowly approved the treaty in September, and in July 1993 British Prime Minister John Major was forced to call a vote of confidence in order to secure its passage. An amended version of the treaty officially took effect on November 1, 1993.

The treaty consisted of three main pillars: the European Communities , a common foreign and security policy, and enhanced cooperation in home (domestic) affairs and justice. The treaty changed the name of the European Economic Community to the European Community (EC), which became the primary component of the new European Union. The agreement gave the EC broader authority, including formal control of community policies on development, education, public health, and consumer protection and an increased role in environmental protection, social and economic cohesion, and technological research. It also established EU citizenship, which entailed the right of EU citizens to vote and to run for office in local and European Parliament elections in their country of residence, regardless of national citizenship. The Maastricht Treaty specified an agenda for incorporating monetary policy into the EC and formalized planning that had begun in the late 1980s to replace national currencies with a common currency managed by common monetary institutions. The treaty defined a set of “convergence criteria” that specified the conditions under which a member would qualify for participation in the common currency.

Countries were required to have annual budget deficits not exceeding 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), public debt under 60 percent of GDP, inflation rates within 1.5 percent of the three lowest inflation rates in the EU, and exchange-rate stability. The members that qualified were to decide whether to proceed to the final stage—the adoption of a single currency. The decision required the establishment of permanent exchange rates and, after a transition period, the replacement of national currencies with the common currency, called the euro. Although several countries failed to meet the convergence criteria (e.g., in Italy and Belgium public debt exceeded 120 percent of GDP), the Commission qualified nearly all members for monetary union, and on January 1, 1999, 11 countries—Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain—adopted the currency and relinquished control over their exchange rates. Greece failed to qualify, and Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom chose not to apply for membership. Greece was admitted to the euro beginning in 2001.

Initially used only by financial markets and businesses, the euro was introduced for use by the general public on January 1, 2002. The Maastricht Treaty significantly modified the EEC’s institutions and decision-making processes. The Commission was reformed to increase its accountability to the Parliament. Beginning in 1995, the term of office for commissioners, who now had to be approved by the Parliament, was lengthened to five years to correspond to the terms served by members of the Parliament. The ECJ was granted the authority to impose fines on members for noncompliance. Several new institutions were created, including the European Central Bank , the European System of Central Banks, and the European Monetary Institute. The treaty also created a regional committee, which served as an advisory body for commissioners and the Council of Ministers on issues relevant to subnational, regional, or local constituencies . One of the most radical changes was the reform of the legislative process. The range of policies subject to qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers was broadened. The treaty also endowed the Parliament with a limited right of rejection over legislation in most of the areas subject to qualified majority voting, and in a few areas, including citizenship, it was given veto power.

The treaty formally incorporated the Court of Auditors, which was created in the 1970s to monitor revenue and expenditures, into the EC. As part of the treaty’s second pillar, members undertook to define and implement common foreign and security policies. Members agreed that, where possible, they would adopt common defense policies, which would be implemented through the Western European Union , a security organization that includes many EU members. Joint actions—which were not subject to monitoring or enforcement by the Commission or the ECJ—required unanimity. The EU’s third pillar included several areas of common concern related to the free movement of people within the EU’s borders. The elimination of border controls conflicted with some national immigration, asylum, and residency policies and made it difficult to combat crime and to apply national civil codes uniformly, thus creating the need for new Europe-wide policies. For example, national asylum policies that treated third-country nationals differently could not, in practice, endure once people were allowed to move freely across national borders. Enlargement and post-Maastricht reforms On January 1, 1995, Sweden, Austria, and Finland joined the EU, leaving Iceland , Norway , and Switzerland as the only major western European countries outside the organization.

Norway’s government twice (1972 and 1994) attempted to join, but its voters rejected membership on each occasion. Switzerland tabled its application in the early 1990s. Norway, Iceland, and the members of the EU (along with Liechtenstein) are members of a free trade area called the European Economic Area , which allows freedom of movement for goods, services, capital, and people. Two subsequent treaties revised the policies and institutions of the EU. The first, the Treaty of Amsterdam , was signed in 1997 and entered into force on May 1, 1999. Building on the social protocol of the Maastricht Treaty, it identified as EU objectives the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions, and proper social protection; added sex-discrimination protections and transferred asylum, immigration, and civil judicial policy to the community’s jurisdiction; granted the Council of Ministers the power to penalize members for serious violations of fundamental human rights; and gave the Parliament veto power over a broad range of EC policies as well as the power to reject the European Council’s nominee for president of the Commission.

A second treaty, the Treaty of Nice, was signed in 2001 and entered into force on February 1, 2003. Negotiated in preparation for the admission of new members from eastern Europe, it contained major reforms. The maximum number of seats on the Commission was set at 27, the number of commissioners appointed by members was made the same at one each, and the president of the Commission was given greater independence from national governments. Qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers was extended to several new areas. Approval of legislation by qualified voting required the support of members representing at least 62 percent of the EU population and either the support of a majority of members or a supermajority of votes cast. Although national vetoes remained in areas such as taxation and social policy, countries choosing to pursue further integration in limited areas were not precluded from doing so. After the end of Cold War , many of the former communist countries of eastern and central Europe applied for EU membership. However, their relative lack of economic development threatened to hinder their full integration into EU institutions.

To address this problem, the EU considered a stratified system under which subsets of countries would participate in some components of economic integration (e.g., a free trade area) but not in others (e.g., the single currency). Turkey , at the periphery of Europe, also applied for membership, though its application was controversial because it was a predominantly Islamic country, because it was widely accused of human rights violations, and because it had historically tense relations with Greece (especially over Cyprus). Despite opposition from those who feared that expansion of the EU would stifle consensus and inhibit the development of Europe-wide foreign and security policies, the EU in 2004 admitted 10 countries (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), all but two of which (Cyprus and Malta) were former communist states; Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. Negotiations on Turkey’s membership application began in 2005 but faced numerous difficulties. Composition of the European Union. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Building on the limited economic and political goals of the ECSC, the countries of western Europe have achieved an unprecedented level of integration and cooperation.

The degree of legal integration, supranational political authority, and economic integration in the EU greatly surpasses that of other international organizations. Indeed, although the EU has not replaced the nation-state, its institutions have increasingly resembled a parliamentary democratic political system at the supranational level. In 2002 the Convention on the Future of Europe, chaired by former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing , was established to draft a constitution for the enlarged EU. Among the most difficult problems confronting the framers of the document was how to distribute power within the EU between large and small members and how to adapt the organization’s institutions to accommodate a membership that would be more than four times larger than that of the original EEC. The framers also needed to balance the ideal of deeper integration against the goal of protecting members’ national traditions. The drafting process evoked considerable controversy, particularly over the question of whether the constitution should mention God and the Christian heritage of much of European society (the final version did not).

The proposed constitution was signed in 2004 but required ratification by all EU members to take effect; voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it in 2005, thereby scuttling the constitution at least in the short term. It would have created a full-time president, a European foreign minister, a public prosecutor, and a charter of fundamental rights. Under the constitution the powers of the European Parliament would have been greatly expanded and the EU given a “legal personality” that entailed the sole right to negotiate most treaties on its members’ behalf. Under the leadership of Germany, work began in early 2007 on a reform treaty intended to replace the failed constitution. The resulting Lisbon Treaty , signed in December 2007, required approval by all 27 EU member countries in order to take effect. The treaty, which retained portions of the draft constitution, would establish an EU presidency, consolidate foreign policy representation for the EU, and devolve additional powers to the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and the European Parliament. Unlike the draft constitution, the Lisbon Treaty would amend rather than replace existing treaties.

The treaty failed, at least in the short term, in June 2008 after it was rejected by voters in a national referendum in Ireland. However, in a second referendum, in October 2009, Irish voters—apparently concerned that another “no” vote would imperil Ireland’s ailing economy—overwhelmingly approved the treaty. A week after the Irish vote, Poland completed its ratification of the treaty as well. At that time the treaty remained to be ratified by only one country, the Czech Republic. Although the Czech Parliament already had approved the treaty, Czech Pres. Václav Klaus expressed concern that it would threaten Czech sovereignty and refused to sign it. In early November, after the Czech Constitutional Court ruled that the treaty did not imperil the Czech constitution, Klaus reluctantly endorsed the document, completing the country’s ratification process. Having been approved by all 27 member countries, the treaty entered into force on December 1, 2009. Page 1 of 2 European Union - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) The organization for the economic and political integration of Europe known as the European Union (EU) was officially created on November 1, 1993.

In practice, however, the union traces its origins back to 1950, and it has continued to grow in the 21st century. EU members are sovereign countries that have control over their own basic economic and political affairs, yet they have agreed to follow several EU laws and standards, including treaties regulating regional and world trade, the free movement of citizens within the EU, environmental regulations, and security and law enforcement agreements. Article Contributors

Question: In which year was the Maastricht treaty signed? (It came into force a year later.)
Answer: 1992