Explaining fifty four years of European Union history is a daunting task. In this introductory text I will focus first on Union pillars, institutions, and competences, and on differences in integration; second on the nature of a European “body politic,” and on the emergence of a European public space and public opinion; and third on European values. Toward the end of this paper I will draw some conclusions.
Three Pillars under One Roof
The European construction emerged in 1952 with six countries: France, Germany, Italy, and the three Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Together, on April 18, 1951, in Paris, these nations concluded the treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) for a period of fifty years, which entered into force on July 23, 1952, and expired in July 2002. Six years later in Rome, on March 25, 1957, the treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC, now EC) and the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) were both concluded for an unlimited period and entered into force on January 1, 1958. Together these treaties formed the three communities. By far the most important of these three was the European Economic Community, which created, progressively, a common market of goods, persons, services, and capital subject to free competition and with a common commercial policy, and which was applicable to all economic sectors (including agriculture and transport) not addressed by the other two treaties.
These communities were gradually enlarged, the two existing ones (EC and EAEC) currently comprising (as of May 1, 2004) twenty-five and (May 1, 2007) twenty-seven Member 8 Institutions, Identity, and Values States. Moreover, the European Economic Community (EEC) was broadened in scope, first by the Single European Act of February 1986, which improved the functioning of the common market and laid down a timetable for the achievement of the so-called “internal market”—defined in Article 14 (2) EC as “an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured.” Later, in the 1990s, further steps were taken to intensify European integration in the monetary and political fields.
This evolution took forty years and led, on February 7, 1992, to the signing by the (then) twelve Member States of the Treaty on European Union (EU, or Maastricht, Treaty).1 As a result of both the Single Act and the EU Treaty, a variety of new competencies were conferred upon the Community related to such diverse matters as social policy and employment, research and technological development, the environment, culture and education, public health and consumer protection, economic and social cohesion, and development cooperation. However, the most dramatic addition to the EC “portfolio” was
the insertion of a chapter on monetary policy, leading in the final stage to a single European currency. The amendments to the EC Treaty provided an institutional framework and a timetable for turning that policy into a monetary union.2
The EU Treaty entered into force on November 1, 1993, after ratification by all of the existing Member States.3 It renamed the European Economic Community the European Community (EC), thus dropping the word “economic” in order to indicate that many non-economic matters had become part of its architecture.
1 The EU Treaty is also known as the Maastricht Treaty, after the town in the Netherlands where it was signed. Names of towns have been used to refer to European treaties that were signed there since before Maastricht. Thus the ECSC Treaty has long been called the Treaty of Paris and the EEC and EAEC Treaties have often been referred to as the Treaties of Rome. Reference is made below to the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice.
2 For a historical perspective, see D. Wyatt and A. Dashwood, European Law (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 2000), chapter 18.
3 As a result of ratification by the (then) Member States, treaty amendments become part of the so-called acquis communautaire. New states that wish to gain access to the Union will need to accept the existing acquis communautaire as a condition of accession. Although the concept remains imprecise, it is generally understood to include full acceptance of the rights and obligations attaching to the Union and its institutional framework and comprises the obligation for the Member States to ensure effective application of the acquis through appropriate administrative and judicial structures. See Christine Delcourt, “The Acquis Communautaire: Has the Concept Had Its Day?” 38 CMLRev., 2001, 829–70.
