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1 European Communities

European Communities is the name given collectively to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), when in 1967, they were first merged under a single institutional framework with the Merger Treaty.

EEC soon became the most important of these three communities, subsequent treaties adding it further areas of competence that extended beyond the purely economic areas. In 1992 the word 'Economic' was removed from its name by the Maastricht treaty.

The other two communities remained extremely limited: for that reason often little distinction is made between the European Community and the European Communities as a whole. Furthermore in 2002 the ECSC ceased to exist with the expiration of the Treaty of Paris which established it. Seen as redundant no effort was made to retain it -- its assets and liabilities were transferred to the EC.

2 Community Pillar

The Maastricht treaty turned the European Communities as a whole into the first of three pillars of the European Union, also known as the Community Pillar or Communities Pillar. In Community Pillar policy areas decisions are made collectively by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). Furthermore it is within this first pillar that the member states have relinquished parts of their sovereignty to partly supranational structures, as contrasted to the 2nd ( Common Foreign and Security PolicyThe Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP was established as the second of the three pillars of the European Union in the Maastricht treaty of 1992, and further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997. Objectives According to the treati) and 3rd ( Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal MattersPolice and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters is the third of the three pillars of the European Union, focusing on co-operation in law enforcement and combating racism. It was created as the Justice and Home Affairs pillar in the Treaty of Maastric) Pillars, where member states maintain a veto over many policy decisions.

The Treaty of Amsterdam enlarged the scope of the authority of the European Community by transfering to it the areas of illegal immigrationImmigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. An immigrant is usually someone who intends to reside permanently, and not a casual visitor or traveler. Immigration means "in-migration" into a coun, visaVisa or VISA has several meanings: visa (document) a document required to enter a specific country. See also passport. VISA (credit card) one of the world's most popular credit cards. VISA is also an acronym for the multi-drug resistant bacteria, Vancomycs, and asylumThe term asylum can mean: a psychiatric hospital political asylum a 1985 album named Asylum by KISS A band from preston, http://www. com It is also the name of a film screened in 2004. from the third pillar (then called Justice and Home Affairs).