Theme 2. Supranational system of the EU: structure and principles of functioning

2.1. Treaties|accord| of the EU

2.2. Institutions and bodies of the EU

2.3. Principles of the EU legal system construction

Treaties|accord| of the EU

Founding treaties

European integration is at present based on four founding treaties:

· The Treaty of Paris, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, which was signed on 18 April 1951, entered into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002.

· The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) – 1957.

· The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), which was signed - along with the Euratom Treaty - in Rome on 25 March 1957, and entered into force on 1 January 1958. These two Treaties are often referred to as the "Treaties of Rome". When the term "Treaty of Rome" is used, only the EEC Treaty is meant.

· The Treaty on European Union, signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, entered into force on 1 November 1993. It changed the name of the European Economic Community to simply "the European Community" and introduced new intergovermental structures to deal with the aspects of Common Foreign and Security Policy and "Justice and Home Affairs". The structure formed by these so-called Three Pillars is the European Union, whose scope was now more overtly political as well as economic.