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Treaties

Official Treaties are the foundations of the European Union and the primary source of EU law. Europa's European Treaties page provides an overview of the major treaties and includes links to explanatory texts for certain treaties (see lower-right corner of page).

The Founding Treaties

(Quotations taken from Europa's How the European Union Works)

Treaty	Summary
Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Also known as "Treaty of Paris" Signed: April 18, 1951, Paris Came into force: July 23, 1952 Expired: July 23, 2002	Created the three "European Communities"--"the system of joint decision-making on coal, steel, nuclear power and other major sectors of the member states' economies." Established free trade area for many important economic and military resources.
Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) Also known as "Treaty of Rome" Signed: March 25, 1957, Rome Came into force: January 1, 1958	Created a common market aimed at facilitating the movement of goods, services, capital, and labor. Abolished all internal tariffs. Established a common agricultural policy (CAP) and a common external trade policy.
Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) Also signed in Rome--same dates as above	Euratom was established to facilitate and encourage cooperation in atomic energy development and use.
Treaty on European Union (EU) Also known as "The Maastricht Treaty" Signed: February 7, 1992, Maastricht Came into force: November 1, 1993	Established the European Union. Granted EU citizenship to every citizen of EU member states. Introduced central banking system and unified currency, the euro. "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 with three "pillars" which is political as well as economic. This is the European Union." Maastricht also renamed the EEC (created in the Treaty of Rome) to simply the EC--European Community--since the community's role had expanded beyond just economic concerns.

Other Treaties

(Quotations taken from Europa's How the European Union Works)

Treaty	Summary
Single European Act (SEA) Signed: February 1986 Came into force: July 1, 1987	Expanded scope of EEC. "Amended the EEC treaty and paved the way for completing the Single Market."
Treaty of Amsterdam Signed: October 2, 1997 Came into force: May 1, 1999	"Amended the EU and EC treaties, giving numbers (instead of letters) to the EU Treaty articles"
Treaty of Nice Signed: February 26, 2001 Came into force: February 1, 2003	"Further amends the other treaties, streamlining the EU's institutional system so it can continue to work effectively after a new wave of member states joins in 2004"
Treaties of Accession Various dates	The founding treaties are amended whenever new member states join the European Union. The most recent such amendment was in 2005, when Romania and Bulgaria were admitted to the EU. A complete list of the accession treaties is here.

The Treaties area of EUR-Lex contains the full text of all EU treaties, including

• The Founding Treaties [the European Coal and Steel Community (Paris, 1951), European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community (Rome, 1957), Treaty on European Union (Maastricht, 1992]
• The Accession Treaties
• Treaties amending the basic treaties [the merger treaty (1965), the so-called budgetary treaties (1970, 1975), the Single European Act (1986), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), the Treaty of Nice (2001)]

EUR-Lex also allows you to search treaties using keywords.