Maastricht Treaty

European Union

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The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union, TEU) was signed on February 7, 1992 in Maastricht, Netherlands after final negotiations in December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on November 1, 1993 under the Delors Commission. It led to the creation of the European Union and was the result of separate negotiations on monetary union and on political union. The Maastricht Treaty has been amended to a degree by later treaties.

The treaty led to the creation of the euro, and introduced the three-pillar structure (the European Communities pillar, the Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP pillar, and the Justice and Home Affairs pillar). The CFSP pillar was built on the foundation of European Political Cooperation (EPC), but brought it under a treaty and extended it. The JHA pillar introduced cooperation in law enforcement, criminal justice, civil judicial matters, and asylum and immigration.

Originally, the European Community (EC) dealt mainly with economic and trade matters. The European Commission and the European Court of Justice, both independent from the EC governments, had a lot of power within the system. The European Parliament, which was directly elected by the citizens of the EC member states, also had some power. The Governments controlled the remainder of the power, but since the mid-1980s had increasingly been doing so through majority votes. This system was called the Community method, or supranationalism, since international institutions not directly controlled by the governments wielded a lot of power, and members could have decisions they disagreed with imposed upon them through majority votes.

It was desired to add competencies in foreign policy, military and criminal matters to the European Community. However, many member states considered that these areas were too sensitive to be managed by the mechanisms of the European Community, and that the power of governments in relation to these areas had to be stronger than the powers of governments in the European Community. That is, an intergovernmental, as opposed to supranational, system would have to be used. Other member states feared that this might threaten the power of the independent supranational institutions (the European Commission, European Court of Justice and European Parliament) in relation to the economic matters then dealt with by the European Community. The three pillar structure was then developed to isolate the traditional Community responsibilities in the area of the economy (the Community Pillar) from the new competencies in the areas of foreign policy and military matters (the CFSP pillar) and criminal matters (the JHA pillar).

Ratification

The process of ratifying the treaty was fraught with difficulties in various states. Denmark first rejected the treaty on 2 June 1992 by less than 50,000 votes. This sparked a referendum in France which only narrowly supported it, with 51.05% in favour. The treaty was ratified by Denmark on 18 May 1993 with the addition of the Edinburgh Agreement which lists four Danish exceptions. In the United Kingdom, the ratification of the treaty in Parliament was opposed by the opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs and crucially by the Maastricht Rebels within the governing Conservative Party. The number of rebels exceeded the Conservative majority in the House of Commons, and thus the government of John Major came close to losing the confidence of the House.

See also

• European Union Law
• Subsidiarity

External links

• The Treaty on European Union - Online version (original, not the amended version)
  • Download version as PDF (Portable Document Format)
  • For other languages look at the EU page on the European Treaties
  • Currently established version in consolidated form
• The History of the European Union - The Treaty of Maastricht
• Maastricht Treaty European NAvigator

Timeline of the Treaties and EU Constitution

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