Merger Treaty

The Merger Treaty (or Brussels Treaty) was a European treaty which combined the executive bodies of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) into a single institutional structure.

The treaty was signed in Brussels on 8 April 1965 and came into force on 1 July 1967. It set out that the Commission of the EEC and the Council of the EEC should replace the Commission and Council of Euratom and the High Authority and Council of the ECSC. Although each Community remained legally independent, they shared common institutions (prior to this treaty, they already shared a Parliamentary Assembly and Court of Justice) and were together known as the European Communities. This treaty is regarded by some as the real beginning of the modern European Union.

This treaty was abrogated by the Amsterdam Treaty signed in 1997:

Without prejudice to the paragraphs following hereinafter, which have as their purpose to retain the essential elements of their provisions, the Convention of 25 March 1957 on certain institutions common to the European Communities and the Treaty of 8 April 1965 establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities, but with the exception of the Protocol referred to in paragraph 5, shall be repealed. —Article 9(1) of the Amsterdam Treaty

Signed In force Document

1948 1948 Brussels Treaty

1951 1952 Paris Treaty

1954 1955 Modified Brussels Treaty

1957 1958 Rome treaties

1965 1967 Merger Treaty

1975 N/A European Council conclusion

1985 1985 Schengen Treaty

1986 1987 Single European Act

1992 1993 Maastricht Treaty

1997 1999 Amsterdam Treaty

2001 2003 Nice Treaty

2007 2009 Lisbon Treaty

Three pillars of the European Union:

European Communities:

European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

Treaty expired in 2002

European Union (EU)

European Economic Community (EEC)

Schengen Rules

European Community (EC)

TREVI

Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)

Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC)

European Political Cooperation (EPC)

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

Unconsolidated bodies

Western European Union (WEU)

Treaty terminated in 2011