The Community now looked very different to how it was at the start of the process of European integration. It had matured over time and its competences had increased. It had welcomed new members and cooperation between them had become even closer. Soon new candidate countries would be jostling for entry and the powers of the institutions would keep increasing.
The challenge was therefore clear: to adapt the Community’s institutional framework to this new state of affairs, to improve the way it functioned and to bring it as close as possible to the citizens. A series of treaties was signed in order to adapt the Treaty of Rome to these objectives. The last one, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed just recently and entered into force on 1 December 2009.
First step towards the “European Union”: the Single European Act
In 1986, the Member States adopted the Single European Act (SEA). The main objective of this Treaty was to create a large single market of more than 300 000 000 consumers within a single European space with no borders. This objective was achieved in 1993.
The EEC gradually abandoned its purely economic style and Europe started to gradually evolve towards a Community with broader political and social competences. The objective of a real ‘European Union’ (EU) could now be seen on the horizon.
The European Union: moving towards a Europe for citizens
The Treaty of Maastricht marked the birth of the “European Union” in 1992. This was a real turning point in the history of European integration.
Its objectives were to complete the large single market with real economic and monetary union (EMU) based on the single currency, strengthen union and political cooperation between the Member States, develop a common foreign and security policy and cooperation at the level of justice and home affairs and to give the Community more effective and more democratic institutions.
The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) introduced other competences (such as employment) and included proposals for citizens’ rights. It removed the final barriers to the freedom of movement of people (integration of the Schengen acquis in the Community pillar). It strengthened security, gave the EU a stronger voice in the world and reformed the European institutions with a view to enlarging the Union by allowing many more Member States to join.
In fact, by 1995, the EU had already increased from twelve to fifteen members with the accession of Finland, Austria and Sweden and the process of enlargement did not stop there. Soon afterwards, the Union was preparing for a fifth chapter, with the accession of Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Most of these were Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) which had previously been under the supervision of the USSR. At the end of the Cold War, these countries were emancipated and started a process of democratisation which would allow them to envisage joining the EU. Anxious to draw a line once and for all beneath the division of Europe following the Second World War, the Union responded favourably to their request and these ten countries joined in 2004. The Treaty of Nice (2001) established the basis on which the European institutions would function in the run-up to this fifth enlargement.
The EU now had 25 Member States. Although the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice had made changes to the Treaty of Maastricht, these changes still did not go far enough. In light of this, a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was drafted. The objective of this Treaty, apart from improving how the EU functioned, was to consolidate the various treaties signed over the course of nearly fifty years into a single text. Although signed in October 2004, this Treaty was not ratified by France or the Netherlands and was subsequently replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon.
The Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon was signed in 2007, the year in which Bulgaria and Romania joined the Union, bringing the number of Member States to 27.
This Treaty maintained the existing treaties – the Treaties of Rome and the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) – but made far-reaching changes to them.
A different institutional architecture of the EU emerged from this Treaty and now included the office of permanent President of the European Council. Community competences were broadened considerably.
The Treaty of Lisbon also strengthened the coherence of EU policies and the EU’s place on the international stage by creating the office of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. These positions were filled by the former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and the Briton Catherine Ashton on 1 December 2009, the date on which the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force.