The European Union (EU) is the most recent name of an organization of Western European states. It started life as the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957. From there it became the European Community in 1967. The differences between the two older stages and the new EU are considerable, and they grow continually through a series of treaties replacing or adding to the agreements contained in the original 1957 Treaty of Rome. The first step was the ratification in 1987 of the Single European Act creating, by 1992, a ‘single European market’. This act modified the extent to which single countries could veto European legislation; increased marginally the powers of the European Parliament; increased regional aid; and adopted measures of social policy through the ‘Social Charter’, which came into effect in the 1990s. The next step was the greatest yet taken, when the member states ratified the Maastricht Treaty of 1993, which also brought about the name change. Although Maastricht entailed many things, including the inception of a move towards common foreign-affairs and military policy, it is famous above all for launching monetary union.
EMU (economic and monetary union) was the move that finally transformed the European Communities into something previously unknown in world history. The member states gave up independent control of monetary policy, and indeed stopped having their own monetary system at all, putting total control into the hands of a politically independent European Central Bank: 1999 saw the onset of the single European currency and the end of national monetary policy for those members able and willing to meet stringent economic criteria. Some countries wished to join and failed to meet the conditions, while the UK, probably capable of meeting the conditions, refused to join. By 2002 the last vestiges of independent European national monetary systems had gone when national currency units were all replaced by the ‘euro’.
By contrast, the next phase after Maastricht, the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, was less dramatic but still vitally important. This treaty further developed the institutions of the Union in order to increase democratic accountability and reduce the possibility of individual states going their own way. The great problem for the EU in the 21st century is one of growth. There is considerable pressure to allow the countries of the democratic transition in Eastern Europe to join, but apart from the notable difference in their economies, there is obviously a serious question as to whether the spectacular success of the EU in turning itself into a completely new form of transnational political entity can continue if it becomes too large. The other problem is the variation in aim and preferred speed of development, with some countries; notably Germany and occasionally France, being eager to produce a fully fledged federal united states of Europe, while others still wish to maintain considerable national autonomy.
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