The Treaty of Rome refers to the treaty which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and was signed by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on March 25, 1957. Its original full name was Treaty establishing the European Economic Community -- however the Treaty of Maastricht amended it and among other things removed the word "Economic" from the name of both the community and the treaty. The treaty is therefore now generally called the Treaty establishing the European Community or the EC Treaty.
Another treaty was signed the same day establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) : their conjunction is known as the Treaties of Rome (plural). Both came into force on 1 January1958.
The original Treaty was amended by all the subsequent treaties; the Treaty of Nice sought to consolidate all treaties into one document but the EC Treaty as amended remains a single section within this, with its own article numbering.
Though the entry in force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 was a further step in the direction of European integration, most decisions of the institutions of the Union are still taken on the legal basis of EC Treaty, which remains the main source of communitary legislation.
The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, known more often as the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was the second treaty of the three treaties establishing the European Communities.
The Treaty of Amsterdam introduced into the treaties the concept of the fundamental principles of the European Union (liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law).
The aim of the Treaty was to prepare the Union for enlargement and to develop the decision-making of the Community by developing the ‘Community Method’, where the institutions would form guidelines for the Member States, by strengthening the involvement of the European Parliament and introducing more qualified majority voting.
The Treaty of Amsterdam, agreed in 1997 and ratified in 1998, was intended as a sequel to the Maastricht Treaty, with the emphasis on institutional reform to facilitate enlargement and address the EU's 'democratic deficit'.
Given the furore which the Maastricht Treaty caused in 1992 and the extent of the subsequent alterations and additions made at Amsterdam, it is convenient to refer to the original Treaty as Maastricht, leaving the name Treaty on European Union to denote the consolidated and amended version, incorporating the Treaty of Rome.
Europe's seminal Treaty, signed in 1957 and second of the three founding Treaties to be concluded (the first was the 1951Treaty of Paris; the third, also signed in 1957, was the EuratomTreaty), the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (later to become the European Community).
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