The development of the European Union has been characterised by an intensification of cooperation among the Member States, which has been extended to more and more policy areas. The respective foundations have been laid down in international law treaties. In a parallel process, the spatial area of the Union has been enlarged from originally six to meanwhile 25 Member States. The most important stages of the integration process:
The notion of European integration is one that can be traced back at least to the 19th century. But the actual history of the European Union did not begin until after World War II, with the implementation of the Schumann Plan. The Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was signed in 1951 by Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This Treaty expired in the year 2002 following termination of the period of validity provided for. However, the European integration that it initiated is still ongoing today.
In 1957, the six founding members of the ECSC met in Rome to sign the treaties establishing two European Communities, which still today remain legally independent: The Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community (EEC - later renamed today’s EC) and the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or EURATOM).
In the following decades, the system of the three European Communities (ECSC, EEC and EAEC) was reformed in several steps. An important benchmark in that process was the Treaty of Maastricht, signed in 1992. It provided that the EEC, renamed the European Community (EC), would receive additional areas of competence. Specifically, it formed the basis for an economic and monetary union; meanwhile, the Euro has become the common currency. At the same time, the “European Union” (EU) was founded, which included the previously-existing communities as well as two fields of activity outside of the Communities.
The original and still-existing structure of the Union may be described with the image of a temple with three pillars. The first pillar is formed by the European Communities, meaning the EC and EAEC. “Community law” is referred to only in this context. As fields of activity of the Union, the other two pillars are formed by the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSC) and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Common regulations form a type of umbrella over the three pillars.
In a broader sense, the entire body of law may be characterised as Union law. However, it is customary to classify the law of the European Communities (EC and EAEC) as Community law, and the law from the areas of the other two pillars as Union law (in the narrower sense). In both areas, a differentiation may be made between primary and secondary (derivative) law. Primary law includes the treaties that form the foundation of the European Union and the two European Communities (EC and EAEC). Secondary law is understood to be the laws promulgated by the bodies created by these treaties (particularly the Council of Europe, the Commission and the European Parliament).
The Treaty of Amsterdam, which took effect on 1 May 1999, strengthened the participatory rights of the European Parliament. In addition to numerous editorial changes to the EC Treaty, a portion of the field of Justice and Home Affairs, namely, visa, asylum and immigration policies, were made into Community law, i.e. taken from the area of Union law in the narrower sense and subsumed within the EC Treaty.
The Treaty of Nice represents the foundation for currently valid European law. It was signed on 26 February 2001 and took effect on 1 February 2003. Its main purpose was to prepare the EU, which at that time was still composed of 15 Member States, for the accession of eight Central and Eastern European states as well as Malta and Cyprus. This was completed on 1 May 2004. To that end, among other things it provides that the Council, the body composed of the representatives of the Member States, may take decisions in more areas with a qualified majority rather than pursuant to the principle of unanimity.
The adoption of the Treaty of Nice served to lay the cornerstone for a process which culminated in the signing of a treaty on a Constitution for Europe, which was to place the European Union upon a new foundation.
