European Union/Timelines

1949-1959

1949 The Council of Europe is founded.
1951 The Treaty of Paris establishes the European Coal and Steel Community.
1954 The European Court of Justice makes its first ruling.
1957 The Treaty of Rome[1] creates the European Economic Community (membership (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands).
1958 The first meeting of the European Parliamentary Assembly.
1959 The European Free Trade Association is established (membership Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

1960-1969

1962 The European Commission[2]

The Common Agricultural Policy[3].

1963 The UK's application to join the EEC is vetoed by France

1966 The introduction of majority voting[4]

1967 The value-added tax[5] - the coordination of member states' indirect tax systems by the intoduction of a uniform value-added tax with rates of 15 to 25 per cent.

The new Commission

1970-1979

1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the Union

1879 The first direct elections to the European Parliament

1980-1989

1981 Greece joins the Union

1986 Spain and Portugal join the Union

The Single European Act[6] - provides for increasing the number of cases in which the Council can take decisions by qualified majority voting instead of unanimity..

1990-1999

1992 The Maastricht Treaty[7] - creates the European Union, coprising the European Communities, common foreign and security policy and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, .

1993 Copenhagen European Council[8] - criteria for membership (stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respectfor and protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union).

1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU.

The Schengen Agreement[9] takes effect in seven countries — Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. Travellers of any nationality can travel between all these countries without any passport control at the frontiers.

1997 The Treaty of Amsterdam[10]

1999 The Charter of Human Rights[11] is agreed.

The Eurozone (founder members: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland.)

2000-2010

2001 Greece joins the eurozone

2003 The Treaty of Nice[12][13]

2004 Eight countries of central and eastern Europe join the EU (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia).

The 25 EU countries sign a Treaty establishing a European Constitution[14]

2007 Bulgaria and Romania, join the Union.

The 27 EU countries sign the Treaty of Lisbon[15] - provides for a strengthened role for the European Parliament, greater involvement of national parliaments, and provisions for withdrawal from membership/

Slovenia joins the eurozone

2008 Cyprus and Malta join the eurozone
2009 Slovakia joins the eurozone

2010 The eurozone crisis - see the eurozone crisis timeline.