European Communities

European Communities
Pillars of the European Union
European UnionCommon Foreign and Security PolicyPolice and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters
The three pillars which constituted the European Union (clickable)
1993–2009 → EU
Constituent communities
European Coal and Steel Community1952–2002
European Economic Community/European Community1958–1993/1993–2009
European Atomic Energy Community1958–present

The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), and the European Economic Community (EEC); the last of which was renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993 by the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union. The European Union was established at that time more as a concept rather than an entity, while the Communities remained the actual subjects of international law impersonating the rather abstract Union, becoming at the same time its first pillar. In the popular language, however, the singular European Community was sometimes inaccurately used interchangeably with the plural phrase, in the sense of referring to all three entities.[1]

The European Coal and Steel Community ceased to exist in 2002 when its founding treaty expired. The European Community was merged with the second and third EU pillars by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, finally allowing the European Union to move beyond being only a concept and to assume the shape of a legally incorporated international organization with juridical personality, designated as the legal successor to the Community. However, the reformed EU has not become entirely unified, because Euratom, though governed with the EU by the common set of institutions, has been retained as an entity distinct from the EU, along with a number of other international entities, such as the European Investment Bank, the European University Institute, the European Stability Mechanism, and the Unified Patent Court.

  1. ^
    • "European Community". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 January 2009. The term also commonly refers to the 'European Communities', which comprise ...
    • "Introduction to EU Publications". Guide to European Union Publications at the EDC. The University of Exeter. Archived from the original on 24 September 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2009. The European Community originally consisted of three separate Communities founded by treaty ...
    • Derek Urwin, University of Aberdeen. "Glossary of The European Union and European Communities". Retrieved 30 January 2009. European Community (EC). The often used singular of the European Communities.