Chronology of European integration

Box 4 Chronology of European integration

July 1952 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is established by Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

January 1958 The same six countries establish the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). January 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the three European Communities. January 1981 Greece joins the three European Communities. January 1986 Spain and Portugal join the three European Communities. February 1986 The Single European Act is adopted. November 1993 The Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty), which was signed

in February 1992, enters into force. It establishes the European Union with a three-pillar structure: i) the three European Communities; ii) the common foreign and security policy, and iii) justice and home affairs/police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

January 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union. May 1999

The Treaty of Amsterdam, which was signed on 2 October 1997, enters into force; it amends both the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Treaty on European Union.

February 2003 The Treaties are further amended by the Treaty of Nice, which was signed in 2001, to pave the way for an enlarged European Union. 2003

The Convention on the future of Europe draws up a draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

May 2004 The Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Union, bringing the total number of Member States to 25.

June 2004 The EU Member States agree on a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

Eurosystem. Under the procedure laid down in Article 122(2) of the EC Treaty, the EU Council had decided on 19 June 2000 that Greece fulfilled the conditions

for adopting the euro. 31 The conversion rate between the euro and the Greek drachma had been pre-announced in a Council Regulation 32 on the same day.

The introduction of the euro was completed with the cash changeover on

1 January 2002: euro banknotes and coins were put into circulation and the residual function of the national currencies as non-decimal sub-divisions of the euro became obsolete. Cash denominated in the legacy currencies ceased to be legal tender by the end of February 2002 and, from that date, the euro banknotes and coins became the sole legal tender in the countries of the euro area.

EMU was created within the framework of the European Communities, which itself has increased significantly since its inception in 1952 (see Box 4). The European Union now numbers 25 Member States, with the most recent addition of ten central and eastern European and Mediterranean countries on 1 May 2004.

31 Council Decision 2000/427/EC of 19 June 2000 in accordance with Article 122(2) of the Treaty on the adoption by Greece of the Single Currency in 2001 (OJ L 167, 7.7.2000, p. 20).

32 Council Regulation (EC) No 1478/2000 of 19 June 2000 (OJ L 167, 7.7.2000, p. 1).

Two other eastern European countries, Bulgaria and Romania, signed the Accession Treaty in April 2005 and are set to join the EU in 2007. Negotiations with two further candidates, Croatia and Turkey, started in autumn 2005.

Since participation in the euro area requires an EU Member State to fulfil the necessary conditions for adopting the euro, new EU Member States do not immediately join the euro area. However, they are committed to the objectives of EMU and their respective NCBs become ex officio members of the ESCB on the date of accession and prepare themselves for their eventual integration into the Eurosystem. Slovenia will be the first of the ten new EU Member States to participate in the euro area, as from 1 January 2007. Under the procedure laid down in Article 122(2) of the EC Treaty, the EU Council decided on 11 July 2006

that Slovenia fulfilled the conditions for adopting the euro. 33 The conversion rate, which will take effect on 1 January 2007, has been set at 239.640 Slovenian tolars to one euro. 34