Timeline of European Union history

Part of a series on the
History of the European Union
Timeline Pre-1948 ideas 1948–1957 1958–1972 1973–1993 1993–2004 2004–present
Organisation European Communities (1958–2009) European Coal and Steel Community (1952–2002) European Economic Community (1958–1993) European Atomic Energy Community (1958–present) European Community (1993–2009) Justice and Home Affairs (1993–2003) Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (2003–2009) Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar (1993–2009) Western European Union (1954–2011) Western Union (1948–1954)
Treaties Treaty of Paris 1951 Treaty of Rome 1957 Merger Treaty 1965 Single European Act 1986 Maastricht Treaty 1992 Treaty of Amsterdam 1997 Treaty of Nice 2001 Treaty of Lisbon 2007
Commissions Hallstein Commission 1958 Rey Commission 1967 Malfatti Commission 1970 Mansholt Commission 1972 Ortoli Commission 1973 Jenkins Commission 1977 Thorn Commission 1981 Delors Commission 1985 Santer Commission 1994 Prodi Commission 1999 Barroso Commission 2004 Juncker Commission 2014 Von der Leyen Commission 2019
Topics History of Europe History of the euro History of defence integration History of enlargement List of presidents List of founders
European Union portal
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This is a timeline of European Union history and its previous development.

• Ideas before 1948
• 1948–1957
• 1958–1972
• 1973–1993
• 1993–2004
• 2004–present

European Coal and Steel Community

European Economic Community

European Communities

European Union

• 1948 – Treaty of Brussels establishing the Western Union;
• 1948 – Formation of the International Authority for the Ruhr
• 1949 – Treaty of London establishing the Council of Europe
• 1950 – Schuman Declaration proposes pooling French and German markets for coal and steel
• 1951 – Treaty of Paris creates the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
• 1954 – Paris Agreements; Western Union transformed into Western European Union
• 1957 – Treaty of Rome creates European Economic Community (by "The Six": Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany)
• 1963 – Ankara Agreement initiated a three-step process toward creating a Customs Union which would help secure Turkey's full membership in the EEC.
• 1963 – Charles de Gaulle vetoes UK entry
• 1967 – ECSC, EEC and Euratom merged
• 1973 – Accession of Denmark, Ireland and the UK
• 1979 – First direct elections to Parliament
• 1981 – Accession of Greece
• 1985 – Delors Commission, Greenland leaves Community.
• 1986 – Single European Act; Accession of Portugal and Spain; flag adopted
• 1989 – The fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe
• 1992 – Maastricht Treaty formally called the Treaty on European Union - The European Union is born and Euro was introduced as the fellow currency (Denmark and the UK are not included in the EMU (European Monetary Union)).
• 1993 – Copenhagen criteria defined
• 1995 – Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden
• 1997 – Treaty of Amsterdam
• 1999 – Fraud in the Commission results in resignation
• 1999 - The Euro as an 'accounting currency' officially replaces twelve national currencies
• 2002 – Euro banknotes and coins physically replace the twelve national currencies
• 2003 – Treaty of Nice
• 2004 – Accession of ten countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia); signing of Constitution
• 2005 – France and the Netherlands reject the Constitution after own internal referendums (for France it was a binding one only)
• 2005 – Accession negotiations for full membership started with Croatia and Turkey.
• 2007 – Accession of Bulgaria and Romania
• 2009 – Lisbon Treaty abolishes the three pillars of the European Union
• 2013 – Accession of Croatia
• 2016 – UK holds a Membership Referendum and votes to leave the European Union
• 2017 – Negotiations between UK and the EU officially started in June 2017
• 2017 – Start of Brexit: On 29 March 2017, the Government of the United Kingdom invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The UK was due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 at 11 p.m. GMT, when the period for negotiating a withdrawal agreement was set to end
• 2020 – UK leaves the EU after the Brexit withdrawal agreement takes effect on 31 January 2020 at 11 p.m. GMT
• 2022 – Granted full candidacy status with Ukraine and Moldova.
• 2024 – Accession negotiations for full membership started with Moldova and Ukraine.

Since the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.

Legend:   S: signing   F: entry into force   T: termination   E: expiry     de facto supersession   Rel. w/ EC/EU framework:    de facto inside    outside

European Union (EU)

[Cont.]

European Communities (EC)

(Pillar I)

European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom)

[Cont.]

/ / / European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

(Distr. of competences)

European Economic Community (EEC)

Schengen Rules

European Community (EC)

'TREVI'

Justice and Home Affairs (JHA, pillar II)

/ North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

[Cont.]

Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC, pillar II)

Anglo-French alliance

[Defence arm handed to NATO]

European Political Co-operation (EPC)

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP, pillar III)

Western Union (WU)

/ Western European Union (WEU)

[Tasks defined following the WEU's 1984 reactivation handed to the EU]

[Social, cultural tasks handed to CoE]

[Cont.]

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Council of Europe (CoE)

Entente Cordiale S: 8 April 1904

Dunkirk Treaty[i] S: 4 March 1947 F: 8 September 1947 E: 8 September 1997

Brussels Treaty[i] S: 17 March 1948 F: 25 August 1948 T: 30 June 2011

London and Washington treaties[i] S: 5 May/4 April 1949 F: 3 August/24 August 1949

Paris treaties: ECSC and EDC[ii] S: 18 April 1951/27 May 1952 F: 23 July 1952/— E: 23 July 2002/—

Protocol Modifying and Completing the Brussels Treaty[i] S: 23 October 1954 F: 6 May 1955

Rome treaties: EEC and EAEC S: 25 March 1957 F: 1 January 1958

WEU-CoE agreement[i] S: 21 October 1959 F: 1 January 1960

Brussels (Merger) Treaty[iii] S: 8 April 1965 F: 1 July 1967

Davignon report S: 27 October 1970

European Council conclusions S: 2 December 1975

Single European Act (SEA) S: 17/28 February 1986 F: 1 July 1987

Schengen Treaty and Convention S: 14 June 1985/19 June 1990 F: 26 March 1995

Maastricht Treaty[iv][v] S: 7 February 1992 F: 1 November 1993

Amsterdam Treaty S: 2 October 1997 F: 1 May 1999

Nice Treaty S: 26 February 2001 F: 1 February 2003

Lisbon Treaty[vi] S: 13 December 2007 F: 1 December 2009

• History of the European Union
  • Ideas of European unity before 1945
  • History of European integration (1948–1957)
  • History of the European Communities (1958–1972)
  • History of the European Communities (1973–1993)
  • History of the European Union (1993–2004)
  • History of the European Union (since 2004)
• European Coal and Steel Community
• European Economic Community

• A timeline of the EU – BBC News.
• The history of the European Union – Europa
• European Union Politics Timeline - Oxford University Press: European Union Politics Resource Centre
• Archival material concerning the history of the European Union can be consulted at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence