Maastricht Treaty

The Maastricht Treaty, formally the Treaty on European Union, was signed on 7 February 1992 and is the founding text of the European Union as a political and legal entity. It organised the Union around three pillars: the existing European Communities, a new common foreign and security policy, and cooperation on justice and home affairs, the last two run by intergovernmental decision-making rather than the Community method. It launched economic and monetary union, created the Committee of the Regions, extended the powers of the European Parliament through the co-decision procedure, set out the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, and introduced citizenship of the Union alongside national citizenship. The treaty was later amended by the treaties of Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon; the Lisbon Treaty ended the three-pillar structure and the present Treaty on European Union descends from this text.