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The focus of this chapter is the emergence of the European Communities in the 1950s, their evolution in the three decades thereafter, and the establishment and early development of the European Union (EU) in the 1990s. The chapter explores key developments in the first five decades of European integration and some of the tensions that have shaped them. It considers the ambitions of the architects and supporters of the European Communities and how their hopes and aspirations played out as integration became a reality in the 1950s and 1960s. It looks at how their ambitions grew and how the process then lost momentum in the 1970s before the idea of ‘European union’ was rekindled in the 1980s with the Single European Act (1986) and the Single Market project. These acted as catalysts for a new era of dynamic European integration with the now expanded Communities at its core. The chapter then explores how, through the adoption and implementation of the Treaty on European Union (1992), the European Union was established. The chapter assesses the unique and incomplete form of the new ‘union’ and examines the impact on it of reforms introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2000) as the EU sought to prepare itself for the further enlargement and the challenges of the initial years of the twenty-first century.

This chapter looks at Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), and its subsequent transformation into the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ). The AFSJ comprises the policy areas immigration and asylum, and police and judicial cooperation. This chapter focuses on the early years of cooperation in this policy area, providing an introduction to the Schengen Agreement before reviewing the procedural steps taken by the Maastricht Treaty (1993), at Amsterdam (1999), and institutional developments culminating in the Lisbon Treaty. The chapter also concentrates on policy output, looking beyond Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Lisbon, at the Tampere European Council meeting, the Hague Programme, and the Stockholm Programme. The chapter argues that, although some progress has already been made toward Europeanizing AFSJ policy, this field continues to be laced with intergovernmentalism and numerous challenges remain to be resolved, especially in light of broader challenges facing the Union.

The focus of this chapter is the emergence of the European Communities in the 1950s, their evolution in the three decades thereafter, and the establishment and early development of the European Union (EU) in the 1990s. The chapter explores key developments in the first four decades of European integration and some of the tensions that have shaped them. It considers the ambitions of the architects and supporters of the European Communities and how their hopes and aspirations played out as integration became a reality in the 1950s and 1960s. It looks at how their ambitions grew and how the process then lost momentum in the 1970s before the idea of ‘European union’ was rekindled in the 1980s with the Single European Act (1986) and the Single Market project. These acted as catalysts for a new era of dynamic European integration with the now expanded Communities at its core. The chapter then explores how, through ‘Maastricht’ and the adoption and implementation of the Treaty on European Union (1992), the European Union was established. The chapter assesses the unique and incomplete form of the new ‘union’ and examines the impact on it of reforms introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2000) as the EU sought to prepare itself for the further enlargement and the challenges of the initial years of the twenty-first century.

This chapter examines a European policy, Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), and its transformation into the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ). The AFSJ, one of the newest additions to the European Union mandate, seeks to engage the EU in the areas of immigration and asylum policy as well as police and judicial cooperation. Cooperation in the AFSJ has evolved into a fully fledged and vibrant EU policy. The chapter first considers the early years of cooperation in the AFSJ and the Schengen Agreement before discussing the procedural steps taken by the Maastricht Treaty (1993), Amsterdam Treaty (1999), and Lisbon Treaty. It then turns to policy output, taking into account the Tampere European Council meeting, the Hague Programme, and the Stockholm Programme. It concludes with an overview of various challenges specific to AFSJ cooperation, with a particular focus on the EU’s post-2014 migration crisis. cooperation

This chapter examines two important developments in the history of the European Union (EU): the signing of the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties. In June 1989, the European Council agreed to European Commission President Jacques Delors’s three-stage plan for monetary union by 1999, despite British opposition. In 1991, intergovernmental conferences (IGCs) were held on both monetary union and political union. The proposals of these IGCs were incorporated into the Treaty on European Union (TEU), agreed at Maastricht in December 1991. The TEU marked a major step on the road to European integration. It committed most of the member states to adopting a single currency and introduced the concept of European citizenship, among others. This chapter considers the events leading up to the signing of the TEU, from the Maastricht negotiations to the issue of enlargement, the 1996 IGC, and the Treaty of Amsterdam.