EC Treaty encyclopedia topics

Ratified treaties

Legend for below table: [Founding] - [Amending] - [Membership]

Treaty	Established/Amended	Signed in	Ceased
ECSC Treaty	European Coal and Steel Community	Paris, FR
Euratom Treaty	European Atomic Energy Community	Rome, IT	in force
EEC Treaty	European Economic Community	Rome, IT	in force
Merger Treaty		Brussels, BE
First Budgetary Treaty		Luxembourg, LU	in force
Acts of Accession		Brussels, BE	in force
Second Budgetary Treaty		Brussels, BE	in force
Act of Accession	Enlarged to Greece	Athens, GR	in force
Greenland Treaty	Secession of Greenland	Brussels, BE	in force
Acts of Accession	Enlarged to Spain and Portugal	Madrid, ES Lisbon, PT	in force
Single European Act		Luxembourg, LU The Hague, NL	in force
Treaty on European Union	European Union	Maastricht, NL	in force
Acts of Accession		Corfu, GR	in force
Treaty of Amsterdam		Amsterdam, NL	in force
Treaty of Nice		Nice, FR	in force
Treaty of Accession 2003		Athens, GR	in force
Treaty of Accession 2005	Enlarged to Bulgaria and Romania	Luxembourg, LU	in force

Unratified treaties

Treaty instituting a European Defence Community. Following on from the success of the Treaty of Paris, efforts were made to allow West Germany to rearm within the framework of a European military structure in the form of a European Defence Community. The treaty was signed by the the six members on 27 May 1952 and the Common Assembly began drafting a treaty for a European Political Community to ensure democratic accountability of the new army, but this treaty was abandoned when the Defence Community treaty was rejected by the French National Assembly on 30 August 1954.1973 and 1995 Acts of Accession of Norway Norway has tried to join the European Communities/Union on two occasions, on both occasions a national referendum returned a negative result leading Norway to turn down membership. The first treaty was signed in Brussels on 22 January 1972 and the second in Brussels on 22 January 1972.Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (the European Constitution) The European Constitution was a treaty that would have repealed and consolidated all previous overlapping treaties (except the Euratom treaty) into a single document. It also made changes to voting systems, simplified the structure of the EU and advanced co-operation in foreign policy. The treaty was signed on 29 October 2004 and was due to come into force on 1 November 2006 if it was ratified by all member states. However this dis not occur, with France rejecting the document in a national referendum on 29 May 2005 and then the Netherlands in their own referendum on 1 June 2005. Following a "period of reflection", the constitution in that form was scrapped and replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon.Treaty of Lisbon (ongoing ratification) The Lisbon Treaty was agreed on 19 October 2007 and carried over most of the amendments made by the Constitution in the form of an amending treaty. It was signed on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon with the aim of it being ratified in time for it to come into force in 2009. On this occasion, Ireland was the only state to hold a referendum which resulted in a 53% vote against. Due to this rejection, the future of the treaty is uncertain.

External links

European treaties - Europa

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Wikipedia

The Treaties of Rome are two of the treaties of the European Union signed on March 25 1957. Both treaties were signed by The Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

The first established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the second established the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). They were the first international organisations to be based on supranationalism, after the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) established a few years prior.

The treaties came into force on 1 January 1958 and the EEC treaty has been amended on numerous occasions (see Treaties of the European Union); It has since been renamed from The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community to the The Treaty establishing the European Community. However the Euratom treaty has seen very little amendment due to the later sensitivity surrounding atomic energy amongst the European electorate.

History

In 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). This was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members together. In the aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed. A European Defence Community (EDC) and a European Political Community (EPC). While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the EDC was rejected by the French Parliament. President Jean Monnet, a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from the High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities, based on economic integration rather than political integration.

As a result of energy crises, the Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the ECSC to cover other sources of energy. However Jean Monnet desired a separate community to cover atomic energy and Louis Armand was put in charge of a study into the prospects of nuclear energy use in Europe. The report concluded further nuclear development was needed to fill the deficit left by the exhaustion of coal deposits and to reduce dependence on oil producers. However the the Benelux states and Germany were also keen on creating a general common market, although it was opposed by France due to its protectionism and Jean Monnet thought it too large and difficult a task. In the end, both Monnet proposed the creating of both, as separate communities, to reconcile both groups. As a result of the Messina Conference of 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak was appointed as chairman of a preparatory committee (Spaak Committee) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market.

The Spaak Report drawn up by the Spaak Committee provided the basis for further progress and was accepted at the Venice Conference (29 and 30 May 1956) where the decision was taken to organize an Intergovernmental Conference. The report formed the cornerstone of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956.

Signatories	For
Paul-Henri Spaak Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers
Konrad Adenauer Walter Hallstein
Christian Pineau Maurice Faure
Antonio Segni Gaetano Martino
Joseph Bech Lambert Schaus
Joseph Luns J. Linthorst Homan

The outcome of the conference was that new communities would share the Common Assembly (now Parliamentary Assembly) with the ECSC, as it would with the Court of Justice. However they would not share the ECSC's Council of High Authority. The two new High Authorities would be called Commissions, this was due to a reduction in their powers. France was reluctant to agree to more supranational powers and hence the new Commissions would only have basic powers and important decisions would have to be approved by the Council, which now adopted majority voting. The latter body fostered co-operation in the nuclear field, at the time a very popular area, and the EEC was to create a full customs union between members.

The conference led to the signature, on March 25, 1957, of the Treaties of Rome at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Capitoline Hill in Rome. In March 2007, the BBC's Today radio programme reported that delays in printing the treaty meant that the document signed by the European leaders as the Treaty of Rome consisted of blank pages between its frontispiece and page for the signatures.

Euratom

The Euratom treaty is less well known due to the lower profile of that organisation. While the EEC has evolved into what is now the European Union, Euratom has remained much the same and is governed by the same institutions as the EEC. It was established with independent institutions, but in 1967 the Merger Treaty merged the institutions of Euratom and the ECSC with those of the EEC. The Euratom treaty has seen very little amendment due to the later sensitivity surrounding atomic energy amongst the European electorate.

EEC Renamings

The EEC treaty's original full name was the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, but in 1993 the Treaty of Maastricht changed the name of the EEC treaty to reflect the change of the EEC in becoming the European Community. Hence the treaty became the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC).

If the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force as planned, a further change in the nature of the Community would lead to the EEC treaty being amended and renamed as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

50th Anniversary

All members of the union in 2007 celebrated the 50^th anniversary of this important event by issuing commemorative coins, in euros for the members of the Eurozone and in their local currencies for those that have not adopted the euro yet. For the first time, the 13 active members of the Eurozone minted a common issue of a 2 euro commemorative coin, on top of the yearly production that some countries did that year. Some other countries minted high value euro commemorative coins, not designated for circulation, like the Belgian 10 euro 50^th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome commemorative coin.