The way to the European Union

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

• established by a treaty ratified in 1952, designed to integrate the coal and steel industries in western Europe
• the original members: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg
• include all members of the European Economic Community (later renamed the European Community) and the European Union
• headquarters of the ECSC were in Brussels
• expired in 2002 » the ECSC dissolved
• May 1950 – French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed the establishment of a common market for coal and steel for those countries willing to delegate control of these sectors of their economies to an independent authority
• the Schuman Plan, which actually had been authored by Jean Monnet (head of the French planning agency), French policy makers were motivated by the belief that a new economic and political framework was needed to avoid future Franco-German conflicts with the ultimate objective: the creation of a “United States of Europe”
• West Germany, Italy, and the three Benelux countries agreed to negotiate on the basis of the plan
• by 1954, the agency had removed nearly all barriers to trade between its members in coal, coke, steel, pig iron, and scrap iron » trade rose dramatically in the 1950s
• a set of common rules was established to control cartels and to regulate mergers
• the central institution, the High Authority, fixed prices and set production limits or quotas and was authorized to impose fines on business firms that infringed treaty rules
• from the 1960s, one of tasks was to supervise its members’ reduction of their excess production of coal as that mineral was replaced by petroleum as an industrial fuel » the closing of inefficient or uneconomic coal mines in member countries.
• in the 1970s – began to supervise the elimination of its members’ excess steel-making capacity when low-cost steel from Japan and other countries put western European steel-makers at a competitive disadvantage
• an international group of steel-makers, the European Federation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer), formed in 1977, to rationalize the industry

European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)

• an international organization established by one of the Treaties of Rome in 1958
• to form a common market for the development of the peaceful uses of atomic energy
• the original members were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
• included all members of the European Union (EU)
• the main reason was the desire to facilitate the establishment of a nuclear-energy industry on a European rather than a national scale
• other aims of the community: to coordinate research in atomic energy, encourage the construction of nuclear-power installations, establish safety and health regulations, encourage the free flow of information and the free movement of personnel, establish a common market for trade in nuclear equipment and materials
• not extended to nuclear materials intended for military use
• the treaty developed in the Messina Conference of 1955 and became effective on 1 January 1958
• the Common Market for Trade in Nuclear Material, which eliminated import and export duties within the community, came into existence in January 1959
• shared a Court of Justice and a parliament with the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community and in July 1967 the executive bodies (the Commission and the Council of Ministers) of all three communities were merged
• in 1993, Euratom and the other two communities were subsumed under the EU

European Economic Community (EEC)

• an organization established (1958) by a treaty signed in 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany (now Germany)
• known informally as the Common Market
• the EEC was the most significant of the three treaty organizations that were consolidated in 1967 to form the European Community (EC; known since the ratification [1993] of the Maastricht treaty as the European Union)
• the aim – the eventual economic union of its member nations, ultimately leading to political union » free movement of labour and capital, the abolition of trusts and cartels, the development of joint and reciprocal policies on labour, social welfare, agriculture, transport, and foreign trade
• in 1958, Britain proposed that the Common Market be expanded into a transatlantic free-trade area »vetoed by France 
  • Britain engineered the formation (1960) of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and was joined by European nations that did not belong to the Common Market
  • after 1973, EFTA and the EEC negotiated agreements » uniformity between the two organizations in many areas of economic policy
  • by 1995, all but four had transferred their memberships from EFTA to the European Union
• one of the first important successes » the establishment (1962) of common price levels for agricultural products
• in 1968, internal tariffs eliminated and a common external tariff fixed

European Community (EC)

• previously (from 1957 until 1 November 1993) European Economic Community (EEC)
• by name Common Market
• former an association designed to integrate the economies of Europe
• also refers to the “European Communities,” which originally comprised the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC; dissolved in 2002), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)
• in 1993, the three communities were subsumed under the European Union (EU)
• the EC, or Common Market » the principal component of the EU » until 2009, when the EU legally replaced the EC as its institutional successor
• the EEC » created in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany; the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland joined in 1973, Greece in 1981 and Portugal and Spain in 1986; the former East Germany admitted as a part of reunified Germany in 1990
• designed to create a common market among its members through the elimination of most trade barriers and the establishment of a common external trade policy
• provided for a common agricultural policy, which was established in 1962 to protect EEC farmers from agricultural imports
• the first reduction in EEC internal tariffs was implemented in January 1959, and by July 1968 all internal tariffs had been removed » between 1958 and 1968 trade among the EEC’s members quadrupled in value
• politically » reduced tensions after WWII » hoped that integration would promote a lasting reconciliation of France and Germany » reducing the potential for a war
• political cooperation through formal supranational institutions :
  • the Commission, which formulated and administered EEC policies
  • the Council of Ministers, which enacted legislation
  • the European Parliament, originally a strictly consultative body whose members were delegates from national parliaments (later they would be directly elected)
  • the European Court of Justice, which interpreted community law and arbitrated legal disputes
• reformed several times in order to expand its policy-making powers and to revise its political structure
• on 1 July 1967, the governing bodies of the EEC, ECSC, and Euratom were merged
• the Single European Act
  • entered into force in 1987
  • EEC members committed themselves to remove all remaining barriers to a common market by 1992
  • gave the EEC formal control of community policies on the environment, research and technology, education, health, consumer protection, and other areas
• the Maastricht Treaty
  • formally known as the Treaty on European Union; 1991
  • into force on 1 November 1993
  • the European Economic Community was renamed the European Community
  • three “pillars”: EEC embedded into the EU; common foreign and security policy; police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters
  • the foundation for an economic and monetary union, which included the creation of a single currency, the euro: €
• the Lisbon Treaty
  
  • ratified in November 2009
  • amended the governing documents of the EU
  • the name European Community as well as the “pillars” concept were eliminated