Euratom Treaty
The Euratom Treaty, officially the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, established the European Atomic Energy Community. It was signed on 25 March 1957, at the same time as the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC Treaty).
Long name:
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|---|---|
| Type | Founding treaty |
| Signed | 25 March 1957 |
| Location | Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy |
| Effective | 1 January 1958 |
| Signatories | (original signatories): Belgium France Italy Luxembourg the Netherlands West Germany |
| Parties | 27[1] (all European Union member states) |
| Depositary | Government of Italy |
| Language | (original): Dutch, German, French and Italian. |
| Languages | all 23[2] official Languages of the European Union |
 | |
Consolidated (amended) version of the EURATOM treaty (2009) | |
The Euratom treaty is less well-known due to the lower profile of the organisation it founded. While the EEC has evolved into what is now the European Union, Euratom has remained much the same as it was in 1957, albeit governed by the institutions of the European Union. It was established with its own independent institutions, but the 1967 Merger Treaty merged the institutions of Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community with those of the EEC.
The Euratom treaty has seen very little amendment, due to the later sensitivity surrounding nuclear power amongst European public opinion. Owing to this, some argue that it has become too out-dated, particularly in the areas of democratic oversight. It was not included as part of the (not ratified) Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which sought to combine all previous treaties, over fears that including nuclear power in the treaty would turn more people against it. Nevertheless, it forms part of the active treaties of the European Union.
See also
References
- "Detailpagina Verdragenbank, Verdrag tot oprichting van de Europese Gemeenschap voor Atoomenergie (EURATOM)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands) (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- "Verdrag tot oprichting van de Europese Gemeenschap voor Atoomenergie (EURATOM) (consolidated version)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands) (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 August 2011.
External links
- Documents of Treaty of Rome's negotiations are at the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence
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 so-called 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, and the membership of 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 |
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[Cont.] | ||||||||||||||
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(Pillar I) | |||||||||||||||
| European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) | [Cont.] | |||||||||||||||
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| European Economic Community (EEC) | European Community (EC) | |||||||||||||||
| Schengen Rules | ||||||||||||||||
| Terrorism, Radicalism, Extremism and Violence Internationally (TREVI) | Justice and Home Affairs (JHA, pillar II) | |||||||||||||||
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[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) | |||||||||||||
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[New tasks handed to EU] | ||||||||||||||
| [Social, cultural tasks handed to CoE] | [Cont.] | |||||||||||||||
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- ¹Although not EU treaties per se, these treaties affected the development of the EU defence arm, a main part of the CFSP. The Franco-British alliance established by the Dunkirk Treaty was de facto superseded by WU. The CFSP pillar was bolstered by some of the security structures that had been established within the remit of the 1955 Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT). The Brussels Treaty was terminated in 2011, consequently dissolving the WEU, as the mutual defence clause that the Lisbon Treaty provided for EU was considered to render the WEU superfluous. The EU thus de facto superseded the WEU.
- ²The treaties of Maastricht and Rome form the EU's legal basis, and are also referred to as the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), respectively. They are amended by secondary treaties.
- ³The European Communities obtained common institutions and a shared legal personality (i.e. ability to e.g. sign treaties in their own right).
- ⁴Between the EU's founding in 1993 and consolidation in 2009, the union consisted of three pillars, the first of which were the European Communities. The other two pillars consisted of additional areas of cooperation that had been added to the EU's remit.
- ⁵The consolidation meant that the EU inherited the European Communities' legal personality and that the pillar system was abolished, resulting in the EU framework as such covering all policy areas. Executive/legislative power in each area was instead determined by a distribution of competencies between EU institutions and member states. This distribution, as well as treaty provisions for policy areas in which unanimity is required and qualified majority voting is possible, reflects the depth of EU integration as well as the EU's partly supranational and partly intergovernmental nature.
