European Community: Encyclopedia II - European Community - European Community

European Community - European Community

European Community is the name given collectively to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), when in 1967, they were first merged under a single institutional framework with the Merger Treaty.

Soon after the establishment of the ECSC two more European Communities were proposed: European Defence Community and European Political Community. They were later rejected.

The EEC,established in 1958, soon became the most important of these three communities, subsequent treaties adding it further areas of competence that extended beyond the purely economic areas, while the other two communities remained extremely limited. Furthermore in 2002 the ECSC ceased to exist with the expiration of the Treaty of Paris which established it. Seen as redundant, no effort was made to retain it — its assets and liabilities were transferred to the EC, and coal and steel became subject to the EC treaty.

With the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 the European Community became known as the European Union which exists today.

In October 2005 was initiated the European Energy Community - the first covering both the European Union and some non-member states (like the European Economic Area).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "European Community", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki