The European Union

• Author: Cret Vasile - Pantea Madalina
• Pages: 57-71

THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU)

Ph. D. Lecturer Vasile Creţ

Assistant lecturer Mădălina Pantea

Abstract:The European Union is an old concept that evolved in line with the overall

development of civilization on the European continent with the purpose of hegemony, the beginning

and later setting up a Community union based on democratic principles.

Key words: European Union, community, objectives, organization, system, Parliament,

documents, powers, law.

1. A Short History of the European Union

The European Union was founded by the Treaty of Rome signed on March 25, 1957 by

Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and, in 1973, Ireland, Great

Britain and Denmark also joined in, Greece , in 1981 and Spain and Portugal, in 1986.

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Austria, Finland and Sweden have become members of the European Union on January 1st,

1995, as a consequence of referendums, events that took place in June, October and November

1994, respectively. The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary,

Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia have become members of the European Union on the 1st of May 2004

and Romania and Bulgaria on the 1st of January 2007.

The European Community (E.C.) was born after the fusion between the European Coal and

Steel Community (founded on the 18

th

of April 1951) and the European Atomic Energy Community

(EURATOM), both being created in 1957 on the basis of the Treaty of Rome.

The E.E.C. signed individual agreement (pratially preferential) with other 29 states. In 1973,

the E.E.C. confered Romania with the system of generalized, reciprocal and non-discriminating

preferences applied for the import of finite and semi-finite products in the developing countries.

63 countries in Africa, the Caribbeans and the Pacific are associate members which signed

the Lome Convention in 1979.

On the 17th of February 1986, the Unique European Document was signed and it came into

force on the 1st of January 1987. It forsaw the creation of the single market starting with 1993.

The Treaty of Maastricht was signed on the 7th of February 1992. The Schengen Agreement

is enforced on the 26th of March 1995 and it allowed the open borders without passport control as

well as the cooperation of the law and police forces in the member states.

The Amsterdam Treaty (2nd of October 1997) was meant to consolidate the European

integration. The Nisa Treaty was signed on the 11th of December 2000 and it allowed the EU

extension and on the 1st of January 2000 the Euro banknotes and coins are in circulation. The

European Constitution was signed in Rome on the 29th of October 2004. On the 20th of February

2005, Spain is the first EU member to ratify the European Constitution by referendum. This one

will be rejected in France ( May 29th, 2005) and The Netherlands (June 1st, 2005).

On the 9th and 10th of December 1991 at the Maastricht reunion of the European Council,

the state and government leaders of the Community have adopted a treaty of political, economic and

monetary union which form the Treaty of the European Union. This treaty came into force of the 1st

of November 1993 after being ratified by all the parties, thus allowing the creation of new structures

and procedures. This way, the former European Commmunity was absorbed by the European

Union. This Union has three pillars: the first one, the European one, based on the Paris and Rome

Treaties, modified be the single European Document in 1986 which refers to intergovernmental

cooperation ; the second pillar which is the Common Foreign and Security Policy; the third pillar

referring to the law aspects which govern the Union functioning.

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John Pinder, The European Union. A short Introduction, BI C ALL Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005