 |
|
Other treaties and protocols
1.1.7.1. Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community
The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC Treaty) is the oldest of the European Community’s three founding treaties.
It was signed in Paris on 18 April 1951, came into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002, as it had been concluded for a period of 50 years.
The purpose of the treaty was to set up a common market in coal and steel, and this formula was meant to be gradually extended to other areas of the economy. The coal and steel sectors now come under the ordinary regime of the EC Treaty.
1.1.7.2. Single European Act
The Single European Act was signed on 28 February 1986 and came into force on 1 July 1987.
Its purpose was the completion, by 31 December 1992 at the latest, of the Single European Market, i.e. an area within which there were to be no restrictions on the movement of persons, capital, goods and services. Ad hoc procedures were introduced into the EC Treaty to achieve this.
1.1.7.3. Treaty of Amsterdam
The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed on 2 October 1997 and came into force on 1 May 1999.
There were two significant changes:
1. application of the co-decision procedure to new areas, together with an increase in the cases in which the Council of the European Union can take decisions by qualified majority instead of unanimously;
2. the transfer to the EC Treaty of certain matters covered by the EU Treaty (visa policy, granting asylum and in general all questions concerning free movement); following this transfer the heading of Title VI in the EU Treaty (third pillar) was changed to ‘Provisions on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters’.
1.1.7.4. Treaty of Nice
The Treaty of Nice was signed on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003.
The purpose of this treaty was to adapt the functioning of the European Union with a view to enlargement. Among the changes made, the following are worth mentioning:
· modification of the decision-making process;
· a drastic reduction in the cases in which the Council has to take decisions unanimously; henceforth the Council can reach a decision by qualified majority in a large number of fields: the free movement of citizens, judicial cooperation in civil matters, industrial policy, etc.;
· changes to the weighting of votes within the Council;
· changes to the structure of the institutions;
· a new distribution of seats in the European Parliament;
· renouncement of their second members of the Commission on the part of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain;
· reinforcement of the powers of the President of the European Commission.
1.1.7.5. Other treaties and protocols are available in EUR-Lex for documentation purposes:
· the Greenland Treaty (1984), which was concluded to allow Greenland to leave the EEC in 1985 and give it the status of an overseas country or territory;
· the Merger Treaty (1965), which established a single Commission and a single Council for the three Communities (the Coal and Steel Community, the Economic Community and Euratom); Article 9 of the Treaty of Amsterdam repealed the Merger Treaty and incorporated its essential elements into the EC Treaty;
· the Treaty amending certain financial provisions (1975), which amended certain articles in the three Treaties establishing the ECSC, the EEC and Euratom; these amendments were for the most part further amended by the subsequent treaties;
· the Protocol on the Netherlands Antilles (1962), which clarified the trade arrangements applicable to imports to the European Union of refined petroleum products from the Netherlands Antilles.