The Community's initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including a common market and customs union, among its six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

Upon the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EEC was renamed the European Community to reflect that it covered a wider range than economic policy.

While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the proposed defence community was rejected by the French Parliament.

[6] Following the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union.

These were markedly less supranational than the previous communities,[citation needed] due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed (however there would still be concerns with the behaviour of the Hallstein Commission).

The EEC (direct ancestor of the modern Community) was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the nuclear power sphere.

[9][10] On 1 July 1967, when the Merger Treaty came into operation, combining the institutions of the ECSC and Euratom into that of the EEC, they already shared a Parliamentary Assembly and Courts.

Future treaties granted the community new powers beyond simple economic matters which had achieved a high level of integration.

As it got closer to the goal of political integration and a peaceful and united Europe, what Mikhail Gorbachev described as a Common European Home.

[12] Greece became the first country to join the EC in 1961 as an associate member, however its membership was suspended in 1967 after a coup d'état established a military dictatorship called the Regime of the Colonels.

The four countries resubmitted their applications on 11 May 1967 and with Georges Pompidou succeeding Charles de Gaulle as French president in 1969, the veto was lifted.

Nevertheless, two years later the accession treaties were signed so that Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined the Community effective 1 January 1973.

[14] The Treaties of Rome had stated that the European Parliament must be directly elected, however this required the Council to agree on a common voting system first.

[16] Parliament pressured for agreement and on 20 September 1976 the Council agreed part of the necessary instruments for election, deferring details on electoral systems which remain varied to this day.

It had originated from then-French President Charles de Gaulle's resentment at the domination of supranational institutions (e.g. the commission) over the integration process.

With the prospect of further enlargement, and a desire to increase areas of co-operation, the Single European Act was signed by the foreign ministers on 17 and 28 February 1986 in Luxembourg and The Hague respectively.

The EEC institutions became those of the EU, however the Court, Parliament and Commission had only limited input in the new pillars, as they worked on a more intergovernmental system than the European Communities.

[26] Both Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice also extended codecision procedure to nearly all policy areas, giving Parliament equal power to the Council in the Community.

The main aim of the EEC, as stated in its preamble, was to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".

Calling for balanced economic growth, this was to be accomplished through:[27] Citing Article 2 from the original text of the Treaty of Rome of 25 March 1957, the EEC aimed at "a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the States belonging to it".

The tasks entrusted to the Community were divided among an assembly, the European Parliament, Council, Commission, and Court of Justice.

A European Investment Bank was established to "facilitate the economic expansion of the Community by opening up fresh resources" (Art.

[28] The six states that founded the EEC and the other two Communities were known as the "inner six" (the "outer seven" were those countries who formed the European Free Trade Association).

In the European Parliament, members are allocated a set number seats related to their population, however these (since 1979) have been directly elected and they sit according to political allegiance, not national origin.

The Commission then drafts this and presents it to the council for approval and the Parliament for an opinion (in some cases it had a veto, depending upon the legislative procedure in use).

The commission's duty is to ensure it is implemented by dealing with the day-to-day running of the Union and taking others to Court if they fail to comply.

The Court of Justice was the highest authority in the law, settling legal disputes in the Community, while the Auditors had no power but to investigate.

By virtue of the Merger Treaty in 1967, the executives of the ECSC and Euratom were merged with that of the EEC, creating a single institutional structure governing the three separate Communities.

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.