Treaty of Maastricht - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The treated on the European Union (KEEP SILENT), also called treated of Maastricht , is the treated constitutive of the European Union. He affirms the objectives of the Union, defines the three “pillars” of his action and gives an institutional framework to the European Council like to the procedure of reinforced Coopération. The other institutions and community rules concern the Traité establishing the European Community or the Treaty of Rome, modified by the treaty of Maastricht.

The treaty of Maastricht was signed by the whole of the Member States of the European Economic community (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Portugal) with Maastricht (Netherlands), the February 7th 1992, after an agreement concluded at the time of the European Council of Maastricht, in December 1991. It was modified later on by the treaties of Amsterdam and of Nice, which introduced new provisions and modified the numbers of the whole of the articles.

The principle of new a modifying Traité was adopted at the time of the European Council of Brussels of the June 23rd 2007. This modifying treaty should be signed at the time of a European Council in the month of December 2007 and will come into effect if it is ratified by the Member States.

The treaty on the European Union

Structure of the treaty

The treaty on the European Union contains eight titles:

institution of the European Union (title I)
modification of the the Treaty of Rome of 1957 which institutes the EEC, famous in European Community (title II)
modification of the treaties instituting the ECSC (title III) and Euratom (title IV)
relative tendencies with the foreign Politics and of safety common (title V)
relative tendencies to the police and legal Coopération out of penal matter (title VI)
relative tendencies with the reinforced co-operations (title VII, introduced by the Traité of Amsterdam)
final provisions (title VIII)

Three pillars

It marks the foundation of the European Union, definite like putting back on three pillars:

the European Communities,
the foreign Politics and of common safety (PESC),
police and legal penal matter co-operation.

The treaty also launches the economic Union and monetarist (UEM) having to lead to the creation of the Euro. It modifies for that the treaty establishing the European Economic community, which becomes the Traité establishing then the European Community.

Process of adoption in France

In France, a constitutional law was adopted by the Parliament joined together in congress on June 23rd 1992. She added a title XV to the French Constitution, which constitutes the essence of the article 88 on the “agreements that the Republic can conclude with States which wish to join them to develop their civilizations”. Title XV is entitled “European Communities and European Union”.

In France, a Référendum authorized its ratification the September 20th 1992. With a participation of 69,69%, the " oui" carried with 51,01% of the votes cast, but without reaching however the majority of the voters.

The Constitutional council decided with three resumptions in 1992: April 9th, on September 2nd, and on September 23rd. See: Decisions of the Constitutional council of 1992

The treaty came into effect on January 1st 1993.

Modifications compared to the the Treaty of Rome of 1957

The broad outlines of the modifications made compared to the Treaty of Rome of 1957 are indicated in article 3:

a) Elimination enters the Member States of the customs duties and the quantitative restrictions on the entry and the export of the goods,

Inchangé

b) a common marketing policy,

Treated of 1957: establishment of a Commun Customs Tariff and a common marketing policy towards the Nonmember states .

c) an interior market characterized by abolition, between the Member States, of the obstacles to free movement of the goods, the people, the services and the capital,

Treated of 1957: abolition, between the Member States, of the obstacles to freedom of movement of the people, the services and the capital.

d) measurements relating to the entry and the circulation of the people in the interior market in accordance with article 100 C,

New

e) a common policy in the fields of agriculture and fishing,

Treated of 1957: only agriculture.

f) a common policy in the field of transport,

Unchanged.

g) a mode ensuring that competition is not distorted in the interior market,

Inchangé.

Removal of the old subparagraph G): the application of procedures allowing to coordinate the economic policies of the Member States and to avoid imbalances in their balance of payments.

h) the bringing together of the national legislations to the extent necessary to the operation of the Common Market,

Unchanged

i) a policy in the social domain including/understanding Funds of a company European,

Treated of 1957: the creation of Funds of a company European, in order to improve the employment opportunities of the workers and to contribute to the raising of their standard of living.

New fields appeared in the treaty EU:

Environment,
Industry,
technological Research and development,
Development of networks transeuropéens,
Elevated level of protection of health,
Education and quality training, Political culture,
in the field of the development co-operation,
Association of the countries and territories of overseas,
Consumer protection,
Measures to the fields of energy, civil protection, and tourism.

Amendments of the treaty on the European Union

The treaty on the European Union was always conceived like the first stage of a process which still continues. Thus the article NR of the treaty of origin announces that “a conference of the representatives of the governments of the Member States will be convened in 1996 to examine, in accordance with the objectives given in the articles has and B of the common provisions, the provisions of this treaty for which a revision is planned”.

This intergovernmental conference, opened in Turin on March 29th, 1996, produced the Traité of Amsterdam, signed on October 2nd, 1997 and came into effect on May 1st, 1999. This treaty proceeds to a renumerotation of the articles of the treaty on the European Union. To face the enlarging of the Union, he invents the procedure of the “reinforced Coopération”, by which certain States can go from before in Community construction without awaiting the other countries. He also programs the installation of a Space of freedom, safety and justice within the framework of the third pillar.

The enlargment of Europe from the Fifteen to ten new countries required however a reform of the institutions that the treaty of Amsterdam had not realized. This is why a new intergovernmental conference, open on February 14th, 2000, produced by the Traité of Nice a new amendment of the European treaties. This treaty extends the field of the decision in the majority and modifies the weighting of the votes within the Council of the European Union by instituting a double majority: in voice and population represented.

Once again, the treaty of Nice envisages itself, in a “relative declaration in the future of the Union”, that the European Council will have to continue the reform of the institutions. This time, it will not be an intergovernmental conference but a Convention on the future of Europe which gives on July 18th, 2003 a project of Traité establishing a Constitution for Europe. This Constitution would replace the treaty on the European Union and the treaty establishing the European Community. Signed by the Member States of the Union, the treaty saw however its process of ratification stopped after its rejection by referendum in France and with the Netherlands in spring 2005.

Chronology of the European Union

See too

Internal bonds

Criteria of Maastricht
Decision-making process of the European Union
Place of the European commission in the modifying decision-making process of the Union
Treated

External bond

Version consolidated of the treaty on the European Union on the gate of the European Union.
Treated of Maastricht (version of origin, Official journal of July 29th, 1992)
Posters of the countryside chief clerk in France
Synthesis of legislation: Treaty of Maastricht on the European Union
Europedia (personal site)

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