Single European Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome that formally established the single European market and the European Political Cooperation.
There was tremendous discontent among European Community members in the 1980s about the de facto lack of free trade between members. Leaders from the business and political worlds were eager to harmonize laws between countries and resolve policy discrepancies. A commission formed to analyze whether a common market was possible in Europe, and further, what steps would need to be taken to achieve that goal. The commission put forth the proposals that became the Single European Act.
The goal was to remove remaining barriers between countries, increase harmonization, thus increasing the competitiveness of European countries. It reformed/refined the operating procedures of the institutions (which by then had 12 members, rather than 6 as initially) and Qualified Majority Voting was extended to new areas. An aim of a single market by 1992 was set.
The act also formally introduced the concept of the European Political Cooperation which was the forerunner of the European Union's later Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The act was signed at Luxembourg on February 17, 1986, and at The Hague on February 28, 1986. It went into effect on July 1, 1987, under the Delors Commission.
| 1948 Brussels |
1952 Paris |
1958 Rome |
1967 Brussels |
1987 SEA |
1993 Maastricht |
1999 Amsterdam |
2003 Nice |
2009? Lisbon |
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| European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) | |||||||||
| European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) | European Union (EU) | ||||||||
| European Economic Community (EEC) | → P I L L A R S → |
European Community (EC) | |||||||
| ↑European Communities↑ | Justice & Home Affairs (JHA) | ||||||||
| Police & Judicial co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC) | |||||||||
| European Political Cooperation (EPC) | Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP) | ||||||||
| Western European Union (WEU) | |||||||||
[edit] External links
- Text of the Single European Act
- The History of the European Union - The Single European Act
- The Single European Act European Navigator
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