of 50 years, and was ‘integrated’ into the European Community when its
founding Treaty expired on 23 July 2002. A further development came some
years later with the Treaties of Rome of 25 March 1957, which created the
European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy
Community (Euratom); these began their work when the Treaties entered
into force on 1 January 1958.
The creation of the European Union by means of the Treaty of Maastricht
marked a further step along the path to the political unification of Europe.
Although the Treaty was signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, a number
of obstacles in the ratification process (approval by the people of Denmark
only after a second referendum; legal action in Germany to have Parliament’s
approval of the Treaty declared unconstitutional) meant that it did not enter
into force until 1 November 1993. The Treaty referred to itself as ‘a new stage
in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’.
It contained the instrument establishing the European Union, although it
did not bring this process to completion. It was a first step on the path leading
ultimately to a European constitutional system.
Further development came in the form of the Treaties of Amsterdam and
Nice, which entered into force on 1 May 1999 and 1 February 2003. The
aim of these reforms was to preserve the EU’s capacity for effective action in
a Union enlarged from 15 to 27 or more members. The two Treaties therefore
focused on institutional reforms and, compared with previous reforms, the
political will to deepen European integration in Nice was relatively weak.
The subsequent criticism from several quarters resulted in the start of a debate
on the future of the EU and its institutional set-up. As a result, on
5 December 2001 in Laeken (Belgium), the Heads of State or Government
adopted a Declaration on the Future of the European Union, in which the
EU undertook to become more democratic, transparent and effective and
to open the road to a constitution. The first step to achieving this goal was
taken by setting up a European convention, chaired by the former President
of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, with the remit of drafting a European
constitution. On 18 July 2003 the Chairman, on behalf of the convention,
officially submitted the draft of the Treaty drawn up by the convention to
the President of the European Council. This draft was adopted, with certain
amendments, by the Heads of State or Government on 17 and 18 July in