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The changing terminology

• The term European Economic Community dates from the Treaty of Rome of 1958.

• Use of the term European Community dates from a European Parliament resolution of 1975.

• The Treaty of Maastricht (which came into operation from 1993) created the European Union.

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The First PillarThe European Community

The Single MarketThe Common Agricultural PolicyEconomic and Monetary Union

The Structural FundsThe Common Commercial Policy

Competition policy etc

The European Union

The Third Pillar

Justice and Home Affairs,

which became

Police and Judicial Co-

operation in Criminal Matters

The Second PillarThe Common Foreign and Security Policy

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The changing membership

The original 6 members of the EEC• The three Benelux countries• France• Germany• Italy

The 1973 enlargement• The UK• Ireland• Denmark

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The Mediterranean Enlargement • Greece (1981)• Spain (1986)• Portugal (1986)

The EFTA enlargement of 1995• Austria• Sweden• Finland

The changing membership

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The May 2004 enlargement

• The Czech Republic• Cyprus • Estonia• Hungary• Latvia

• Lithuania• Malta• Poland • Slovakia• Slovenia

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The 2007 Enlargement

Bulgaria and Romania

The ongoing enlargement process:

• In October 2005 the EU decided to begin negotiations for membership with Croatia and Turkey.

• In december 2005 the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was declared a candidate country.

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The definition of integration

Tinbergen (1954) made the distinction between negative integration (the removal of barriers) and positive integration or the introduction of common policies, and building of common institutions.

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The stages of integration

1. Free trade areas

2. Customs unions

3. Common markets

4. Economic and monetary union

5. Political union

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Approaches to integration

1. Pluralist approach

2. The functionalist approach

3. The neo-functionalist approach

4. The federalist approach

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The acquis communautaire

The acquis communautaire is literally ‘what the Community has achieved’. It consists of the body (sometimes called ‘patrimony’) of EU legislation, practices, principles, and objectives accepted by the member states.

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The acquis communautaire• The Treaties (the Treaties of Rome (1958),

the Single European Act (1987), the Maastricht Treaty (1993), the Amsterdam Treaty (1999) and the Treaty of Nice (2003);

• Legislation enacted at the EU level and

judgements of the European Court of Justice;

• Foreign and Security Policy;

• Justice and Home Affairs; and

• Treaties of the EU with third countries.

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Subsidiarity

In practice difficulties may arise in determining whether a particular issue best decided at the EU, national, state, regional or local level.

Subsidiarity is the principle that decisions should be taken at the lowest level possible that permits effective action. The idea of subsidiarity is linked to that of taking decisions ‘as closely as possible to the citizens’.

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The GATT/WTO

The GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) came into operation in 1948.

In 1995 the WTO replaced the GATT, and differs from its predecessor in having full institutional status and legal personality, and reinforced powers to settle trade disputes. In 2007 150 countries were members of the WTO.

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Functions of the GATT/WTO

• setting out regulations governing the conduct of international trade;

• settlements of disputes; and

• providing the framework for multilateral negotiations to liberalise world trade.

There are three main functions of the GATT/WTO: