- 1957:The Treaty of Rome, or Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is signed on March 25. This is the birth of the European Economic Community (EEC).
- 1988:the European Council sets the objective of the gradual achievement of economic and monetary union and instructs the Delors Committee to carry out this task.
- 1989:The Berlin Wall falls, prefiguring the reunification of Germany. Eastern Europe is also getting rid of communist leaders. Democratic demands, but also nationalists appear, which indirectly hastens the need to consolidate European construction.
- 1989:the Delors Committee sets the objective of permanently fixing exchange rates between the various members of the EEC before achieving a single currency.
- 1991:the European Council concludes a preparatory agreement on a closer union of the member countries of the EEC.
February 7, 1992
Characters
Helmut Kohl
Francois Mitterrand
Jacques Delors
Procedure
On February 7, 1992, the 12 Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC), including France, signed the Maastricht Treaty, or Treaty on European Union (TEU), in the Netherlands. This is a decisive step in the process of building the union of the different states of Europe. The Maastricht Treaty realizes some of the aspirations of the "fathers of Europe" of the 1950s, since it gives concrete expression to a Europe which is no longer bound only by economic cooperation treaties, but also by political cooperation.
In concrete terms, the Maastricht Treaty abolishes the EEC and replaces it with the European Union, an enlarged supranational cooperation between the different Member States. This treaty brings together three fields of action, known as the “three pillars”:
- economic cooperation,
- cooperation on common foreign and security policy,
- and cooperation on justice and home affairs.
The creation of a single currency, the euro, was also planned during the Maastricht Treaty. Finally, a European citizenship is instituted, granted in fact to all nationals of the Member States.
To ratify the Treaty of Maastricht, François Mitterrand submits the project to the approval of the French through a referendum. The “yes” narrowly wins. A similar referendum is organized in Denmark, where the "no" wins first, before exceptional measures are granted to the latter country and allow the Danish population to finally accept it.
Consequences
- 1 st November 1993:the Maastricht Treaty comes into force.
- 2007:the Treaty of Lisbon overhauls a large number of provisions of the Treaty of Maastricht.