The European Communities (sometimes referred to as the European Community or EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).
They shared the same governing institutions (those of the EEC) from 1967 until those institutions became those of the European Union (EU). The European Communities operated as the largest of the EU's three pillars until the EEC (renamed the European Community in 1993) was absorbed when the pillar system was abolished. The ECSC expired in 2002 but Euratom remains as a distinct entity, the only one of the three communities to exist beyond 2009.
Read more about European Communities: Institutions, Members, Policy Areas
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or communities:
“Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)