The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedures and objectives. The EU can only act within the competences granted to it through these treaties and amendment to the treaties requires the agreement and ratification (according to their national procedures) of every single signatory.
There are two core functional treaties that lay out how the EU operates and a number of satellite treaties which are interconnected with them. The treaties have been repeatedly amended by other treaties over the 60 years since they first began. The modern amended versions are known as the "consolidated treaties".
Read more about Treaties Of The European Union: Content, Amendment and Ratification, Ratified Treaties, Signed Treaties, Planned Treaties, Abandoned Treaties
Famous quotes containing the words treaties, european and/or union:
“There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Is thy home European or Asian,
O mystical monster marine?”
—Arthur Clement Hilton (1851–1877)
“The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. If he loves, it is not to give himself, to blend in fecund union with another being, but to meditate on his love. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves.”
—Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)