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The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the Union's member states which sets out the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). They establish the various EU institutions, their procedures and the EU's objectives.

The Treaty establishing the European Community (Rome Treaty, effective since 1958) and the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty, effective since 1993) combined constitute the EU's legal basis. These are known as the founding treaties. They have been altered several times since their inception by amending treaties. Each time a new country accedes to the EU, an accession treaty altering the list of signatories within the founding treaties is required to enter force. Accession treaties can also alter other parts of the founding treaties. There is also a number of amending treaties with the sole purpose of reform.

[edit] Ratified treaties


1948 Brussels	1951/52 Paris	1957/58 Rome	1965/67 Brussels	1986/87 SEA	1992/93 Maastricht (founded EU)		1997/99 Amsterdam	2001/03 Nice	2007/09 Lisbon
			European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)
			European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)						European Union (EU)
			European Economic Community (EEC)		→ P I L L A R S →		European Community (EC)
			↑European Communities↑			Justice & Home Affairs (JHA)
							Police & Judicial co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC)
				European Political Cooperation (EPC)		Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP)

Western European Union (WEU)

Legend for below table: [Founding] - [Amending] - [Membership]

Treaty	Established/Amended	Signed in	Signed on	Effective from	Ceased
ECSC Treaty	European Coal and Steel Community	Paris, FR	01951-04-18 18 April 1951	01952-07-23 23 July 1952	02002-07-23 23 July 2002^[1]
Euratom Treaty	European Atomic Energy Community	Rome, IT	01957-03-25 25 March 1957	01958-01-01 1 January 1958	in force
EEC Treaty	European Economic Community	Rome, IT	01957-03-25 25 March 1957	01958-01-01 1 January 1958	in force
Merger Treaty	Amended Previous Executives of ECSC and EAEC combined with those of the EEC.	Brussels, BE	01965-04-08 8 April 1965	01967-07-01 1 July 1967	01999-05-01 1 May 1999^[2]
First Budgetary Treaty	Amended Previous Partial budgetary powers to Parliament	Luxembourg, LU	01970-04-22 22 April 1970	01971-01-01 1 January 1971	in force
Acts of Accession	Enlarged to Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom	Brussels, BE	01972-01-22 22 January 1972	01973-01-01 1 January 1973	in force
Second Budgetary Treaty	Amended Previous Greater budgetary powers to Parliament Established the Court of Auditors (see article for all changes).	Brussels, BE	01975-07-22 22 July 1975	01977-06-01 1 June 1977	in force
Act of Accession	Enlarged to Greece	Athens, GR	01979-05-28 28 May 1979	01981-01-01 1 January 1981	in force
Greenland Treaty^[3]	Secession of Greenland	Brussels, BE	01984-03-13 13 March 1984	01985-01-01 1 January 1985	in force
Acts of Accession	Enlarged to Spain and Portugal	Madrid, ES Lisbon, PT	01985-06-12 12 June 1985	01986-01-01 1 January 1986	in force
Single European Act	Amended Previous Introduced the Single Market and European Political Cooperation	Luxembourg, LU The Hague, NL	01986-02-17 17 February 1986 01986-02-28 28 February 1986	01987-07-01 1 July 1987	in force
Treaty on European Union	European Union Amended Previous EEC became European Community pillar of EU. Intergovernmental pillars of CFSP and JHA established.	Maastricht, NL	01992-02-07 7 February 1992	01993-11-01 1 November 1993	in force
Acts of Accession	Enlarged to Austria, Finland and Sweden	Corfu, GR	01994-06-24 24 June 1994	01995-01-01 1 January 1995	in force
Treaty of Amsterdam	Amended Previous Introduced the High Representative, transferred powers from JHA pillar to EC and integrated the Schengen Agreement (see article for all changes).	Amsterdam, NL	01997-10-01 1 October 1997	01999-05-01 1 May 1999	in force
Treaty of Nice	Amended Previous Prepared the EU to cope with enlargement (see article for all changes).	Nice, FR	02001-02-26 26 February 2001	02003-02-01 1 February 2003	in force
Treaty of Accession 2003	Enlarged to Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia	Athens, GR	02003-04-16 16 April 2003	02004-05-01 1 May 2004	in force
Treaty of Accession 2005	Enlarged to Bulgaria and Romania	Luxembourg, LU	02005-04-13 13 April 2005	02007-01-01 1 January 2007	in force

[edit] Unratified treaties

Treaty instituting a European Defence Community.

Following on from the success of the Treaty of Paris, efforts were made to allow West Germany to rearm within the framework of a European military structure in the form of a European Defence Community. The treaty was signed by the six members on 27 May 1952 and the Common Assembly began drafting a treaty for a European Political Community to ensure democratic accountability of the new army, but this treaty was abandoned when the Defence Community treaty was rejected by the French National Assembly on 30 August 1954.

1973 and 1995 Acts of Accession of Norway

Norway has tried to join the European Communities/Union on two occasions, on both occasions a national referendum returned a negative result leading Norway to turn down membership. The first treaty was signed in Brussels on 22 January 1972 and the second in Corfu on 24 June 1994.

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (the European Constitution)

The European Constitution was a treaty that would have repealed and consolidated all previous overlapping treaties (except the Euratom treaty) into a single document. It also made changes to voting systems, simplified the structure of the EU and advanced co-operation in foreign policy. The treaty was signed in Rome on 29 October 2004 and was due to come into force on 1 November 2006 if it was ratified by all member states. However, this did not occur, with France rejecting the document in a national referendum on 29 May 2005 and then the Netherlands in their own referendum on 1 June 2005. Following a "period of reflection", the constitution in that form was scrapped and replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon.

[edit] Ratified treaties not yet in force

Treaty of Lisbon

The Lisbon Treaty was agreed on 19 October 2007 and carried over most of the amendments made by the Constitution in the form of an amending treaty. It was signed on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon with the aim of it being ratified in time for it to come into force in 2009. On this occasion, Ireland was the only state to hold a referendum which resulted in a 53% vote against. A second Irish referendum in October 2009 allowed ratification, and as of 13 November 2009, all 27 member states had completed ratification and deposited the instruments of ratification in Rome. According to the terms of the treaty, it will thus come into force on 1 December 2009.

[edit] References

^ Expired due to 50 year limit included in Treaty, absorbed by EU via Treaty of Nice.
^ Replaced by Amsterdam Treaty
^ OJ L 29, 1.2.1985

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikisource has several original texts related to: Treaties and declarations of the European Union

[0] Expired due to 50 year limit included in Treaty, absorbed by EU via Treaty of Nice.

[1] Replaced by Amsterdam Treaty

[2] OJ L 29, 1.2.1985

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