History of the European Union: Encyclopedia II - History of the European Union - History of European integration

History of the European Union - History of European integration

One of the first crises affecting the course of European integration occurred in 1965. A switch away from unanimous decision-making and to majority-voting in the Council was supposed to have been made on January 1, 1966. However the De Gaulle government of France was firmly opposed to this, seeking that all discussions on decisions affecting national interests should be discussed indefinitely, essentially requiring the retention of national veto on all issues of importance. This led to the "empty chair crisis" in which France refused to take its seat in the Council for a six month period starting in July 1965. Finally the Luxembourg compromise of January 1966 resolved the crisis by acknowledging the disagreement and beginning a policy where each member-state could wield a veto on matters it deemed of "national importance". In effect this meant member-states could use a veto, but only sparingly. This was a political gentlemen's agreement and not a treaty modification.

The three European Communities have always had identical memberships and similar institutional structures. Originally they shared the Court of Justice and Parliament in common, having separate Councils and Commissions (called the High Authority in the case of the ECSC); but the Merger Treaty of July 1967 merged their Councils and Commissions into a single Council and Commission. A customs union was established in 1968.

The first direct elections for the European Parliament were held in 1979, after a decision to that effect was first adopted in 1976 and ratified in 1978.

The first step in transforming the European Communities into the European Union was made with the Solemn Declaration on European Union (also known as the Stuttgart Declaration), of 19 June 1983.

In 1986 the Single European Act was signed, the first step towards the single European market. At the same it formally introduced the concept of European Political Cooperation.

In 1992, the Maastricht treaty was signed, which at the same time modified the Treaty of Rome. It established the European Union, turning the European Communities into the EU's so-called "first-pillar", and adding two further pillars of cooperation, on Common Foreign and Security Policy and on Justice and Home Affairs. At the same time it established Economic and Monetary Union as a formal objective. The Maastricht treaty came into force in 1993.

The European Economic Area was founded in 1994 in order to allow EFTA countries to participate in the Single Market without having to join the EU.

In 1997, the Treaty of Amsterdam was signed, which updated the Maastricht treaty and aimed to make the EU more democratic.

In January 1999, eleven countries (Austria, the Benelux countries, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain) agreed to join the Euro and abandon their existing currencies. Greece joined two years later, in January 2001, bringing the members of the eurozone to twelve. On January 1, 2002, Euro notes and coins entered circulation.

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