European Community Totally Explained

Everything about European Economic Community totally explained

The European Community (EC) is one of the three pillars of the European Union (EU) created under the Maastricht Treaty (1992). It is an independent supranational economic organisation founded in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome that was known as the European Economic Community (EEC) prior to 1992. It is due to be completely absorbed by the European Union in 2009 if the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force.

History

Background

In 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). This was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members together.
In the aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed. A European Defence Community (EDC) and a European Political Community (EPC). While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the EDC was rejected by the French Parliament. President Jean Monnet, a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from the High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities, based on economic integration rather than political integration. After the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union. The so-called Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee formed the cornerstone of the intergovernmental negotiations at Val Duchesse castle in 1956. Together with the Ohlin Report the Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome.
In 1956, Paul Henri Spaak lead the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse castle, which prepared for the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The conference led to the signature, on March 25, 1957, of the Treaty of Rome establishing a European Economic Community.

Treaty of Rome (1957)

The resulting communities were the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). These were markedly less supranational than the previous communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed (however there would still be concerns with the behaviour of the Hallstein Commission). The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission, was held on 16 January 1958 at the Castle of the Valley of the Duchess. The EEC (direct ancestor of the modern Community) was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the atomic energy sphere. The EEC rapidly became the most important of these and expanded its activities. One of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment (1962) of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs (tariffs on trade between member nations) were removed on certain products.
In 1967 the Merger Treaty was signed, which combined the institutions of the ECSC and Euratom into that of the EEC, they already shared a Parliamentary Assembly and Courts. Collectively they were known as the European Communities. The Communities still had independent personalities although were increasingly integrated.
Future treaties granted the community new powers beyond simple economic matters which had achieved a high level of integration. As it got closer to the goal of political integration and a peaceful and united Europe, what Mikhail Gorbachev described as a Common European Home.

Pillar

Image:Pillars of the European Union.svg||thumb||The three pillars constituting the European Union (clickable) rect 3 41 54 170 European Community rect 65 42 115 170 Common Foreign and Security Policy rect 126 42 176 170 Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force in 1993, established the three pillars of the European Union. While this expanded co-operation between members into foreign policy and Justice and Home Affairs, the institutions of the EEC, now just known as the European Community (EC) due to its expanded role, had little power over these areas which operated on a more intergovernmental basis. For example, while voting within the EC is conducted by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV), in the other pillars individual members could often veto proposals.
With subsequent treaties some powers were transferred from Home Affairs to the Community, and the role of Community institutions have increase, such as granting more oversight powers to the Parliament.
The ECSC element of the Community ceased to exist when its treaty expired, having a 50 year limit, in 2002. It was seen as redundant so no effort was made to replace it, all its assets and activities were handed over to the core of the EC. In 2006 the first new community was created, the European Energy Community. Although this isn't strictly comparable to the original Communities as the Energy Community doesn't set up institutions but rather is an agreement for neighbouring states to adopt EU standards and open up each others markets. It also doesn't form part of the EU, rather the EU is a member of it.

Timeline of treaties

Aims and achievements

The main aim of the EEC, as stated in its preamble, was to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe". Calling for balanced economic growth, this was to be accomplished through 1) the establishment of a customs union with a common external tariff 2) common policies for agriculture, transport and trade 3) enlargement of the EEC to the rest of Europe. For the customs union, the treaty provided for a 10 % reduction in custom duties and up to 20 % of global import quotas. Progress on the customs union proceeded much faster than the twelve years planned, however France faced some setbacks due to their war with Algeria.

Members

Since 1992 the members of the EC are the same of those as the EU, a state can't be part of one and not the other. There were six states which founded the original EEC: France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The first enlargement was in 1973, with the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Greece, Spain and Portugal joined throughout in the 1980s. Following the creation of the EU in 1993, it has enlarged to include a further fifteen countries by 2007.
Member states are represented in some form in each institution. The Council is also composed of one national minister who represents their national government. Each state also has a right to one European Commissioner each, although in the European Commission they're not supposed to represent their national interest but that of the Community. Prior to 2004, the larger members (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) have had two Commissioners. In the European Parliament, members are allocated a set number seats related to their population, however these (since 1979) have been directly elected and they sit according to political allegiance, not national origin. Most other institutions, including the European Court of Justice, have some form of national division of its members.

Institutions

The EEC inherited some of the Institutions of the ECSC in that the Common Assembly and Court of Justice of the ECSC had their authority extended to the EEC and Euratom in the same role. However the EEC, and Euratom, had different executive bodies to the ECSC. In place of the ECSC's Council of Ministers was the Council of the European Economic Community, and in place of the High Authority was the Commission of the European Communities. There was greater difference between these than name: the French government of the day had grown suspicious of the supranational power of the High Authority and sought to curb its powers in favour of the intergovernmental style Council. Hence the Council had a greater executive role in the running of the Community than was the situation in the EEC. By virtue of the Merger Treaty in 1967, the executives of the ECSC and Euratom were merged with that of the EEC, creating a single institutional structure governing the three separate Communities. From here on, the term European Communities were used for the institutions (for example, the Commission of the European Communities.
As the Communities gained more competencies, the institutional framework developed. For example, in 1970 and 1975 two budgetary treaties gave the Assembly (now the European Parliament) equal say with the Council over the Community budget and in 1979 the parliament was elected for the first time. These developments led to the Parliament being treated more as a serious partner to the Council. However in 1992, the Maastricht treaty which created the European Union cut out most Community institutions from the two new areas of co-operation under the pillar structure. Beyond the new Community pillar the Council dominated, however within the Community (especially following subsequent treaties) the power of the supranational institutions increased, especially the Parliament which became a co-legislator to the Council via the codecision procedure and gained more influence of the European Commission. It remains today that within the Community the Commission has sole right of initiative to draft EU law.

Future

Under the Treaty of Lisbon the pillar structure would be abolished, merging the Community pillar with the others into a single European Union, over which Community institutions would have greater powers. This would include the legal personality of the Community which would hence be transferred to the Union.This was previously proposed under the European Constitution but that treaty failed ratification in 2005. The Treaty of Lisbon is planned to come into force in 2009, if fully ratified.
The Euratom treaty, unlike that of the ECSC, didn't expire and despite proposals to merge that fully into the Union, it'll continue to exist as a sole independent entity within the Union.

Further Information

Get more info on 'European Economic Community'.

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