Part ofa series on the
History of the European Union
Timeline Pre-1948 ideas 1948–1957 1958–1972 1973–1993 1993–2004 2004–present
Organisation European Communities (1958–2009) European Coal and Steel Community (1952–2002) European Economic Community (1958–1993) European Atomic Energy Community (1958–present) European Community (1993–2009) Justice and Home Affairs (1993–2003) Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (2003–2009) Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar (1993–2009) Western European Union (1954–2011) Western Union (1948–1954)
Treaties Treaty of Paris 1951 Treaty of Rome 1957 Merger Treaty 1965 Single European Act 1986 Maastricht Treaty 1992 Treaty of Amsterdam 1997 Treaty of Nice 2001 Treaty of Lisbon 2007
Commissions Hallstein Commission 1958 Rey Commission 1967 Malfatti Commission 1970 Mansholt Commission 1972 Ortoli Commission 1973 Jenkins Commission 1977 Thorn Commission 1981 Delors Commissions I–III 1985 Santer Commission 1994 Prodi Commission 1999 Barroso Commission I & II 2004 Juncker Commission 2014 Von der Leyen Commission I 2019 Von der Leyen Commission II 2024
Topics History of Europe History of the euro History of defence integration History of enlargement 1995 2004 2007 2013 List of presidents List of founders
European Union portal
v t e

An entity to be named theEuropean Political Community (EPC) was proposed in 1952 as a combination of the existingEuropean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the proposedEuropean Defence Community (EDC). A draft EPC treaty, as drawn up by the ECSC assembly (now theEuropean Parliament), would have seen a directly elected assembly ("the Peoples’ Chamber"), a senate appointed by national parliaments and a supranational executive accountable to the parliament.

The European Political Community project failed in 1954 when it became clear that the European Defence Community would not be ratified by theFrench national assembly, which feared that the project entailed an unacceptable loss of national sovereignty. As a result, the European Political Community idea had to be abandoned.^[1][2]

Following the collapse of the EPC, European leaders met in theMessina Conference in 1955 and established theSpaak Committee which would pave the way for the creation of theEuropean Economic Community (EEC).

Since theend of World War II, mostsovereignEuropean countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (orpooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in theEuropean integration project or theconstruction of Europe (French:la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of theEuropean Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its presentorganizations,institutions, and responsibilities from theEuropean Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of theSchuman Declaration.

Legend:   S: signing   F: entry into force   T: termination   E: expiry    de facto supersession   Rel. w/ EC/EU framework:    de facto inside    outside

European Union(EU)

[Cont.]

European Communities(EC)

(Pillar I)

European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or EURATOM)

[Cont.]

/ / /European Coal and Steel Community(ECSC)

(Distr. of competences)

European Economic Community(EEC)

Schengen Rules

European Community (EC)

TREVI

Justice and Home Affairs(JHA,pillar III)

/North Atlantic Treaty Organisation(NATO)

[Cont.]

Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters(PJCC,pillar III)

Anglo-French alliance

[Defence armhanded toNATO]

European Political Co-operation (EPC)

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP,pillar II)

Western Union (WU)

/Western European Union (WEU)

[Tasks defined following the WEU's 1984reactivationhanded to theEU]

[Social, cultural taskshanded toCoE]

[Cont.]

v t e

Council of Europe(CoE)

Entente Cordiale S: 8 April 1904

Dunkirk Treaty[i] S: 4 March 1947 F: 8 September 1947 E: 8 September 1997

Brussels Treaty[i] S: 17 March 1948 F: 25 August 1948 T: 30 June 2011

London andWashington treaties[i] S: 5 May/4 April 1949 F: 3 August/24 August 1949

Paris treaties:ECSC andEDC[ii] S: 18 April 1951/27 May 1952 F: 23 July 1952/? E: 23 July 2002/—

Protocol Modifying and Completing the Brussels Treaty[i] S: 23 October 1954 F: 6 May 1955

Rome treaties:EEC andEAEC S: 25 March 1957 F: 1 January 1958

WEU-CoE agreement[i] S: 21 October 1959 F: 1 January 1960

Brussels (Merger) Treaty[iii] S: 8 April 1965 F: 1 July 1967

Davignon report S: 27 October 1970

European Council conclusions S: 2 December 1975

Single European Act (SEA) S: 17/28 February 1986 F: 1 July 1987

Schengen Treaty andConvention S: 14 June 1985/19 June 1990 F: 26 March 1995

Maastricht Treaty[iv][v] S: 7 February 1992 F: 1 November 1993

Amsterdam Treaty S: 2 October 1997 F: 1 May 1999

Nice Treaty S: 26 February 2001 F: 1 February 2003

Lisbon Treaty[vi] S: 13 December 2007 F: 1 December 2009

• Messina Conference
• History of the European Union
• European Defence Community
• European Political Co-operation

• The European Political Community onCVCE (Centre for European Studies)

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