50 Years of the European Union

Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single general plan. It will be built through concrete achievements. Which first create a defacto solidarity.

Schuman Declaration
9 May 1950.

The Treaty of Rome (1957), signed by European leaders to promote recovery through Democratic co-operation, laid the foundations of an ever-closer union amongst the peoples of Europe. The completion to the Single European Market in 1993 deepened the economic relationships among the member states of the European Community and set the course for European Union.

The Maastricht Treaty on European Union (1992) represented the Community's most significant attempt to move forward since the Treaty of Rome. It aimed at further economic convergence, notably through the adoption of a single currency by the end of the century. It strengthened the role of the Institutions. It set objectives for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It stressed that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the citizen. The resulting European Union includes the Community in its classic economic sense and new areas- the so-called second and third pillars-covering co-operation on Common Foreign and Security Policy and on Judicial and Home Affairs.

The Amsterdam Treaty, signed in October 1997, continued and reinforced the groundwork laid in the Maastricht Treaty. It introduced many improvements, among them the strengthening of human rights, and policies on employment, increased co-operation in the field of justice and asylum and the fight against organised crime and drug trafficking, as well as preparing the way for further enlargement.

The Treaty sought to bring the citizen closer the workings of the Union and by increasing the powers of the European Parliament made a welcome step towards reducing the democratic deficit. There is, however much unfinished business, particularly the need to reform the Institutions in order to deal with a greatly enlarged Union.