European Union

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The European Union or EU is a supranational and international organization of 27 member states. ...

Three pillars I: European Community II: Common Foreign and Security Policy III: Police and Judicial Cooperation Political institutions Commission President  (José Barroso) Barroso Commission Council of Ministers and European Council Presidency  (Germany) Parliament President  (Hans-Gert Pöttering) MEPs Constituencies Elections 2009 (EU–27) 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) 2004 / by country (EU–25) Political groups Committees Judiciary Court of Justice List of members Court of First Instance Civil Service Tribunal Finance auditing European Court of Auditors Financial bodies European Central Bank European Investment Bank European Investment Fund Advisory bodies Economic and Social Committee Committee of the Regions Decentralised bodies Agencies of the EU Law Treaties · Acquis communautaire Legislative procedure Regulations · Directives · Decisions Recommendations · Opinions EU-related topics Economic and monetary union Enlargement Foreign relations Pan-European political parties Table of affiliated parties by country Party affiliations on the Council

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The European Community (EC) was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. The 'Economic' was removed from its name by the Maastricht treaty in 1992, which at the same time effectively made the European Community the first of three pillars of the European Union, called the Community (or Communities) Pillar. The Treaty of Maastricht which established the European Union, divided EU policies into three main areas, called pillars. ... The Common Foreign and Security Policy, or CFSP, was established as the second of the three pillars of the European Union in the Maastricht treaty of 1992, and further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1999. ... Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters is the third of the three pillars of the European Union, focusing on co-operation in law enforcement and combating racism. ... This article or section should be merged with List of European Union-related topics The European Union has several institutions: The European Parliament The European Council The Council of the European Union (or Council of Ministers) The European Commission The European Court of Justice (incorporating the Court of First Instance... The Commission seat in Brussels The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ... François-Xavier Ortoli, Romano Prodi, José Manuel Barroso and Jacques Delors The President of the European Commission is notionally the highest ranking unelected official within the European Union bureaucracy. ... José Manuel Duroso Barrão, GCC (pronounced: IPA,  ) (born in Lisbon, March 23, 1956) is a Portuguese politician and the 11th President of the European Commission. ... The Barroso Commission is the European Commission that has been in office since 22 November 2004 and is due to serve until 31 October 2009. ... The Justus Lipsius building, the headquarter of the EU Council in Brussels The Council of the European Union (German: Rat der Europäischen Union, French: Le Conseil de lUnion européenne), is a governing body that forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union... The European Council, informally called the European summit, is a meeting of the heads of state or government of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission. ... Presidency of the Council of the European Union refers to the responsibility of presiding over all aspects of the Council of the European Union, when exercised collectively by a government, on a pre-established rota of the member states, of the European Union. ... Established 1952, as the Common Assembly President Hans-Gert Pöttering (EPP) Since 16 January 2007 Vice-Presidents 14 Political parties 8 Committees 22 Last election June 2004 (785 MEPs) Meeting place Brussels and Strasbourg Secretariat Luxembourg and Brussels Website europarl. ... The President of the European Parliament oversees all the activities of the European Parliament and its constituent bodies. ... Prof. ... A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP)[1] is a member of the European Unions directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. ... In five European Union Member States (Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom), the national territory is divided into a number of constituencies for European elections. ... Elections in the European Union gives information on election and election results in the European Union. ... Elections to the European Parliament will be held in June 2006 in the then–27 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. ... In early 2007, Bulgaria and Romania will elect their members of the European Parliament for the first time. ... Elections to the European Parliament were held from June 10, 2004 to June 13, 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. ... Political Groups in the European Parliament combine the MEPs from European political parties, informal European political blocs, and independents, into powerful coalitions. ... The Standing Committees of the European Parliament are designed to aid the European Commission in initiating legislation. ... European Court of Justice building, Luxembourg The Court of Justice of the European Communities, usually called the European Court of Justice (ECJ), is the highest court of the European Union (EU). ... As of August 17, 2006: Categories: | | | ... The Court of First Instance, created in 1989, is a court of the European Union. ... European Union Civil Service Tribunal, since December 2, 2005 a new specialised tribunal within the European Union institutional framework. ... The European Court of Auditors is one of five institutions of the European Union. ... Headquarters Frankfurt, Germany Established 1 January 1998 President Jean-Claude Trichet Central Bank of Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain Currency Euro -ISO 4217 Code EUR Reserves >€4 billion Base borrowing rate 4. ... The European Investment Bank (the Banque Européenne dInvestissement) is the European Unions financing institution and was established under the Treaty of Rome (1957) to provide loan finance for capital investment furthering European Union policy objectives, in particular regional development, Trans-European Networks of transport, telecommunications and energy... The European Investment Fund, established in 1994, is a European Union agency for the provision of finance to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). ... The European Unions Economic and Social Committee is the consultative assembly of European social and economic partners. This phrase refers mainly to representatives of business, employers and trade unions. ... The Committee of the Regions (CoR) is an institution of the European Union created by the Treaty of Maastricht. ... The agencies of the European Union (or decentralised bodies of the European Union) are bodies which are distinct from the European Unions institutions, in that they have not been created by the treaties but rather by acts of secondary legislation, in order to accomplish a very specific task. ... European Union law is the unique legal system which operates alongside the laws of Member States of the European Union (EU). ... The treaties of the European Union are effectively its constitutional law, making up the EUs primary legislation. ... The term acquis (or sometimes acquis communautaire), deriving from French, is used in European Union law to refer to the total body of EU law accumulated so far. ... The European Union legislative procedure describes the way the European Union creates and enacts legislation across the community. ... A directive is a legislative act of the European Union which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. ... A European Union decision (defined in Article 249/EC) is one of the three binding instruments provide by secondary EU legislation. ... In European Union Law a recommendation Differs from regulations, directives and decisions, in that they are not binding for Member States. ... The European Union is unique among international organisations in having a complex and highly developed system of internal law which has direct effect within the legal systems of its member states. ... // Origins of the EU History of the European Union European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Euratom Single market. ... In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. ... The European Union (EU) was created by six founding states in 1957 (following the earlier establishment by the same six states of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952) and has grown to 27 member states. ... Foreign relations of the European Union Foreign relations of Austria Foreign relations of Belgium Foreign relations of Cyprus Foreign relations of the Czech Republic Foreign relations of Denmark Foreign relations of Estonia Foreign relations of Finland Foreign relations of France Foreign relations of Germany Foreign relations of Greece Foreign relations... A European political party, formally a political party at European level, sometimes informally (especially in academic circles) a Europarty, is a type of political party organization operating transnationally in Europe. ... The majority of major political parties in Europe have aligned themselves into the pan-European political organisations listed below. ... The member-states of the European Union by the European party affiliations of their leaders, as of April, 2006. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Treaty of Rome signing ceremony Signatures in the Treaty The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC) and was signed by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the latter three as part of the Benelux) on March 25, 1957. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty of European Union, TEU) was signed on February 7, 1992 in Maastricht, Netherlands after final negotiations in December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on November 1, 1993 during the Delors Commission. ... The Treaty of Maastricht which established the European Union, divided EU policies into three main areas, called pillars. ...

Community Pillar

The Maastricht treaty turned the European Communities as a whole into the first of three pillars of the European Union, also known as the Community Pillar or Communities Pillar. In Community Pillar policy areas decisions are made collectively by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). The Treaty of Maastricht which established the European Union, divided EU policies into three main areas, called pillars. ... Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) is a voting procedure employed in the Council of the European Union for some decisions. ...

European Economic Community

The European Economic Community (EEC) was an organization established by the Treaty of Rome (25 March 1957) between the ECSC countries Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, known informally as the Common Market (the Six). The EEC was the most significant of the three treaty organizations that were consolidated in 1957 to form the European Community (EC; known since the ratification 1993 of the Maastricht treaty as the European Union, EU). The EEC had as its aim the eventual economic union of its member nations, ultimately leading to political union. It worked for the free movement of goods, service, labor and capital, the abolition of trusts and cartels, and the development of joint and reciprocal policies on labor, social welfare, agriculture, transport, and foreign trade. The Treaty of Rome signing ceremony Signatures in the Treaty The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC) and was signed by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the latter three as part of the Benelux) on March 25, 1957. ...

In 1956, the United Kingdom proposed that the Common Market be incorporated into a wide European free-trade area. After the proposal was vetoed by President Charles de Gaulle and France in November 1958, the UK together with Sweden engineered the formation (1960) of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and was joined by other European nations that did not belong to the Common Market (the Seven). Beginning in 1973, with British, Irish, and Danish accession to the EEC, the EFTA and the EEC negotiated a series of agreements that would ensure uniformity between the two organisations in many areas of economic policy, and by 1995, all but four EFTA members had joined the European Union. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was established on May 3, 1960 as an alternative for European states that were not allowed or did not wish to join the European Community (now the European Union). ...

One of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment (1962) of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs (tariffs on trade between member nations) were removed on certain products.

The future of the European Communities

The signed but unratified European Constitution would merge the European Community with the other two pillars of the European Union, making the European Union the legal successor of both the European Community and the present-day European Union. It was for a time proposed that the European Constitution should repeal the Euratom treaty, in order to terminate the legal personality of Euratom at the same time as that of the European Community, but this was not included in the final version. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ... The European Atomic Energy Community, or EURATOM, is an international organisation composed of the members of the European Union. ...

Timeline

Evolution of the Structures of European Union

See also

• History of the European Union
• European Union
• European Union law
• European Energy Community
• "Common European Home"

This is the history of the European Union. ... European Union law is the unique legal system which operates alongside the laws of Member States of the European Union (EU). ... The Energy Community South East Europe Treaty (ECSEE) signed in Athens, Greece on 25 October 2005. ... Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev promoted the idea of a Common European Home. ...

External links

• European Union website
• Treaty establishing the European Economic Community European NAvigator
• History of the Rome Treaties European NAvigator
• Europedia: Guide to European policies and legislation