Main dates of the European Integration Process

The European integration process began in 1951 as a customs union concerning only the coal and steel sectors of six countries on the basis of the ECSC Treaty.

In 1958, these same countries extended the operation of the customs union and of the common market to all the sectors of their economies, thanks to the EEC Treaty.

In 1973, they were joined by three countries (Denmark, Ireland, Great Britain), in 1981 by one (Greece) and in 1986 by two more countries (Spain and Portugal), which had originally preferred intergovernmental cooperation inside a free trade area.

In 1992, the builders of the common market had become twelve, had completed the work on that stage of their integration on the basis of the Single European Act and had signed the Treaty of Maastricht leading them to the next stage of their integration.

The EU was established in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (The Maastricht Treaty), and is the “de facto” successor to the six-member European Economic Community founded in 1957. Since then new accessions have raised its number of member states, and competences have expanded.

In 1995, the builders of the union were joined by three more states (Austria, Finland, Sweden), which had originally believed in the benefits of the free trade area.

In 1997, the fifteen had decided to perfect their area of freedom, security and justice, on the basis of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

In 2004, the fifteen had opened the door of their enterprise to ten more states ( Czech republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia ), most of which were perfecting their economic and monetary union and were progressing in their political union on the basis of the Treaty of Lisbon.

In 2007 sixth enlargement took place (Bulgaria, Romania had joint).

Despite the successive enlargements, the European integration process has followed a steady evolution in stages of ever closer economic convergence – freetrade zone, customs union, common market, economic and monetary union - and is proceeding towards the final stage of political union.

1. The customs union, nowadays taken for granted and almost forgotten, formed the solid foundation of the entire European edifice. The problem-free removal of customs barriers to trade filled the apprentices of European construction with the enthusiasm necessary for climbing up the steep and unfamiliar road of integration.

2. The stage of the common market, completed in 1992, meant the freedom of movement within the single market of goods, persons, services and capital. These freedoms revolutionised trade and competition, the working methods and the economic conditions in the Member States of the Community. The reduction of administrative and financial costs of intra-Community trade and the realisation of economies of scale liberated the dynamism and the creativity of European businessmen and gave them a solid foothold from which to sustain international competitiveness.

3. In December 1991 in Maastricht, the Member States decided to initiate the next stage of their integration, viz. economic and monetary union (EMU), implying a single monetary policy, necessary for the management of a single currency, and the convergence of national economic policies, with a view to achieving economic and social cohesion. EMU was based on the common market in goods and services, but itself served the proper functioning of the common market, by eliminating exchange rate variations between Member States' currencies, which hindered the interpenetration of capital markets, disturbed the common agricultural market and prevented the common industrial market from wholly resembling an internal market. This stage of the integration process was completed with the successful circulation of the euro, on 1st January 2002, just ten years after its conception.

At the same time that they designed their monetary integration, in Maastricht, the Member States decided to coordinate their non-economic policies as well, i.e.: justice and home affairs policies, in order to achieve a common area of freedom, security and justice; and their foreign and security policies, so that the economic giant that they were creating through economic integration would have a voice commensurate with its size in the international arena. They have, thus, reached the threshold of political integration; but although the new common policies in the political field were given a boost with the Treaty of Amsterdam, foreign and security policy is still detached from the prime objective of the EC/EU: an "ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".

The EU is the current stage of a continuing open-ended process of European integration.