On this day – February 7th

This is NOT AudlemOnline entering the Brexit debate (after all, this was about entering the European Union, not leaving it), but we felt that this anniversary was particularly relevant at this time.

The Maastricht Treaty

The Maastricht Treaty (officially the Treaty on European Union) was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community (Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, West Germany, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal and Spain) in Maastricht, Netherlands to further European integration. On 9-10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty. The treaty founded the European Union and established its pillar structure which stayed in place until the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009. The treaty also greatly expanded the competences of the EEC/EU and led to the creation of the single European currency, the euro.

The Maastricht Treaty reformed and amended the treaties establishing the European Communities, the EU's first pillar. It renamed European Economic Community the European Community, to reflect its expanded competences beyond economic matters. The Maastricht Treaty also created two new "pillars" of the EU on Common Foreign and Security Policy and Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and Home Affairs (respectively the second and third pillars), which replaced the former informal intergovernmental cooperation bodies named TREVI and European Political Cooperation on EU Foreign policy coordination.

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