The Creation of the European Communities

The creation of the European communities

After the Second World War, there have been in Europe moves towards unification between states. The first intention was to create a federal entity in Europe, such as the USA, but it was not accepted, mainly because the Federal Entity was a way of political unification. Therefore, the proposal for the creation of the three organizations, known as the European communities, came from the plan made in 1950 by Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, who was responsible for supervising the French Economic Recovery after the war.

On the 9th May 1950, Robert Schuman made a declaration in which he presented the plan he had worked out with Monnet in order to unify Europe's coal and steel industries. On the basis of the Schuman Plan, the 6 founding States (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands) have concluded the Founding Treaty of European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

The Treaty was concluded on 18th April 1951 and entered into force on 23rd July 1952. The founding treaty of ECSC, also known as the Treaty of Paris, was concluded for 50 years and therefore its duration expired in 2002.

The main objective of the ECSC was to create a common market in the production of coal and steel. The Treaty of Paris has also created 4 institutions of the ECSC, as follows:

1) The High Authority (independent personalities which received the power of making compulsory decisions)

2) The Parliament (responsible with political control)

3) Council of Ministers (representatives of the member states)

4) The Court of Justice (ensure the application of community law)

Few years later, in a new stage of the economy (production and exchanges), the 6 member states of the ECSC signed 2 treaties in Rome on 25th March 1957, creating the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. These 2 began their work when the treaties entered into force on 1st January 1958.

The EEC Treaty provided the creation of a common market which had to cover all the territories of the member states and which had to have all the features of a national market. This required the creation of a custom union, meaning free internal circulation of merchandise and external protection through a common custom taxation. It also required free circulation of persons, companies, services and capital, and protection of free competition.

It also provided the harmonization of the general economic policies and establishment of common policies in the field of agriculture, transportation, and commercial relations with third countries. EEC was concerned with general economic integration achieved by combining different interests of the member states into a common market where goods, persons, services and capital could circulate freely.

The EURATOM Treaty was based on the idea of an accelerated development of atomic energy. As the EEC, it covered only a limited part of the economy. Community institutions existed for each European Community. Within the 2 treaties signed in Rome, the decision making institution became the Council composed of representatives of the member states. Each community had its own institutions, with the exception of Parliament and Court of Justice which were common institutions for the 3 communities. For the other 2 communities, each community had its own Council and its own Commission. The commission corresponded to the High Authority of ESCS.

Evolution of the European Communities

* 3 coordinates:

1) Institutional Unification

2) Enlargement of the European Community by accession of other members

3) The amendment/revision of the founding treaties by the adoption of subsequent treaties, namely the Single European Act, the Treaty of Maastricht, The Amsterdam Treaty, The Treaty of Nice, The Lisbon Treaty.

1) 2 steps:

* In 1957 a convention annexed to the Treaties of Rome provided that the 3 communities had 2 common institutions (Parliament, Court of Justice)

* Merger Treaties signed in 1965 in Brussels, a single council and a commission was formed from the merger of the 6 different institutions, including the High Authority of the ECSC. After merger, the 3 communities functioned with common institutions.

2) Evolution of European communities:

The enlargement of the communities

The member states of the communities comprise first of all the six founder states, namely Belgium, Germany, following the reunification of the 2 Germanies on October 3rd 1990, France, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. On January 1st 1973, the UK, Denmark and Ireland joined the community. Norway's planned accession was rejected in a referendum in October 1972.

On January 1st 1981, Greece became a member of European communities, increasing the number of member states to 10. This so called enlargement to the south was completed in January 1st 1986 with the accession of Portugal and Spain. The next enlargement took place on 1st of January 1995, when Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU, created by the Treaty of Maastricht, which had entered into force on 1.11.1993.

In Norway, a referendum led to a repeat of the outcome obtained 22 years before. Thus, Norway is not a member state of the EU. The EU had therefore, comprised 15 member states, since January 1st, 1995.

On the 16.04.2003, in Athens, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary signed the treaties of accession to the EU. They had become member states on 1.05.2004. Finally, on 1.01.2007, Romania and Bulgaria became member states of the EU.

3) Subsequent treaties:

Single European Act

It was signed in 1986 and entered into force on 1st July 1987. It was the first majot revision of the EEC Treaty, providing for the adjustments required for the achievement of internal market.

Treaty of Maastricht

It was the next step in the development of the European Communities; it went beyond the economic objective of the European community and provided political aptitude of the European Union. It was providing for economic, monetary and political union and was signed in 7th February 1992. It entered into force on 1st November 1993, once it had been ratified by all members.

The UK and Denmark had chosen not to participate into the last stage of monetary