European Community

The European Community (EC), most important of three European Communities, was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. The 'Economic' was removed from its name by the Maastricht treaty in 1992, which at the same time effectively made the European Community the first of three pillars of the European Union, called the Community (or Communities) Pillar.

European Communities

European Communities is the name given collectively to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), when in 1968, they were first merged under a single institutional framework with the Merger Treaty.

Related Topics:
European Coal and Steel Community - European Atomic Energy Community - 1968 - Merger Treaty

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EEC soon became the most important of these three communities, subsequent treaties adding it further areas of competence that extended beyond the purely economic areas. In 1992 the word 'Economic' was removed from its name by the Maastricht treaty.

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The other two communities remained extremely limited: for that reason often little distinction is made between the European Community and the European Communities as a whole. Furthermore in 2002 the ECSC ceased to exist with the expiration of the Treaty of Paris which established it. Seen as redundant, no effort was made to retain it — its assets and liabilities were transferred to the EC, and coal and steel became subject to the EC treaty.

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