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Fact Sheet (Synopsis n°2339) FR EN DE
Origin and development of the European Union
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Origin and development of the European Union



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Title Origin and development of the European Union
Document type Synopsis
Source European NAvigator. Raquel Valls. Translated by the CVCE.
Keywords European Union
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Location in the digital library RESEARCH AND TEACHING >> University education >> European Law I 2006-2007 (Prof. Herwig Hofmann, University of Luxembourg) >> I. The development of European integration
EUROPEAN ORGANISATIONS >> European Union >> Origin and development
Document extract Origin and development of the European Union The European Union is an economic and political organisation which is constantly evolving and which, because of its intrinsic and unique features, prompts lively doctrinal debate as to its legal nature. Because its institutional structure and decision-making procedures are so complex, it cannot be readily be assigned to any one specific category of international organisation. Combining, as it does, the methods of coordination and of sharing national powers, the Union is not comparable to a conventional organisation or a federal state, and it thus remains something which Jean Monnet called a ‘new political form’ or, as Jacques Delors dubbed it, an ‘unidentified political object’. The originality of the European Union derives from the special way in which its various constituent parts have evolved. The European Union came into being with the adoption of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, and it brought together three organisations established in the 1950s to integrate activity in specific sectors (the European Communities), and two areas of intergovernmental cooperation (common foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs). Since then, the resulting structure has been described as one with three pillars , the first of which is supranational, comprising the three Communities, each of w (...) Read more in ENA
See also 'Andriessen and the "dialogue" between institutions' from Europe (14 October 1981)
Lisbon Declaration adopted at the EU–Africa Summit (8–9 December 2007)
Report on the Tindemans Report and the Council of Europe (6 September 1976)
Document of the European Convention on the functioning of the institutions (10 January 2003)
Treaty on European Union (Maastricht, 7 February 1992)
Illustration charting the successive stages in the enlargement of the European Union
Member States of the European organisations (1949–2005)
Statement by Walter Schwimmer (26 March 2003)
Communication from the Commission on Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (15 October 2003)
European Parliament Resolution: excerpt on the Committee of Regions (12 December 1990)
ENA is the first digital library documenting the history of European integration. It is freely available online and provides access to a wealth of multimedia, multilingual and multisource material that will help you learn more about the history of Europe from 1945 to the present day. ENA is developed by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe (Virtual Resource Centre for Knowledge about Europe — CVCE).