Short History of European Integration since the 1970s
By László Molnárfi, S7HUA, EEB1 (Adapted from an essay for History).
Since its inception in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Community (ECC) as it was called then was in a state of constant flux, soon becoming the European Community (EC) with the Merger Treaty of 1967, following the amalgamation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the EEC. By many, this is regarded as the beginning of the European Union (EU), the union that officially came into existence in 1993 with the so-called Maastricht Treaty – these changes would eventually usher in an era of closer cooperation as envisioned by Robert Schuman in early 1950s.
