1.2 Glossary of key terms

Fact Sheet 1.2: Glossary of key terms

Accession: the act of joining the EU, though a Treaty of Accession with the other member states.

Acquis communautaire: "acquired Community practice and powers" (or "Community heritage" or "Community patrimony"), is the irreversible and irretrievable body of laws, policies and practices which have at any given time evolved in the EC/EU. The acquis communautaire includes, most notably, the Treaties in their entirety, all legislation enacted to date, the judgments of the Court of Justice, and joint actions taken in areas of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). In 2003 the then 10 applicant countries were obliged to harmonise their national legal frameworks with the entirety of the acquis communautaire (amounting to some 100,000 pages) with very few & hard-won derogations.

Agreements: are provided for in the Treaty of Rome. They include:

• Europe Agreements with the states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs), which are now members of the EU.
• The Stabilisation and Association (SAA) Process and SAA Agreements: the Western Balkans including Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.
• Development Agreements: e.g. the Cotonou Agreement.
• The European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement: with the states of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA).
• Partnership and Cooperation Agreements: including Russia and other ex-USSR countries.
• Agreements with Mediterranean countries: the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and the Mashreq countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria).
• Agreements with Latin American countries: Mexico has a free trade Political Co-operation and Cooperation Agreement. Chile has an Association Agreement.

À la carte Europe: see flexibility.

Amsterdam Treaty (1997): see Treaties.

Approximation: see harmonisation.

Assent procedure: a mechanism introduced by the Single European Act (SEA) to give the European Parliament the right of veto over certain important decisions taken by the Council of Ministers.

"Cabinet" (French): used to denote the small group of officials who make up the private offices of senior ministers in France and other countries, of members of the European Commission, and of other very senior figures in the European Union, such as the President of the European Parliament.

Cassis de Dijon case: the crucial 1979 judgement of the Court of Justice established that a product lawfully manufactured and on sale in one member state may be imported into another without restriction.

Charter of Fundamental Rights: was incorporated into The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe.

Citizenship: The Maastricht Treaty amended the Treaty of Rome to create citizenship of the European Union (EU).

Co-decision and cooperation procedures: procedures specifying the role of the European Parliament in the legislative process. Cooperation has largely been superseded by co-decision.

Cohesion: the word was introduced into the Treaty of Rome by the Single European Act (SEA), which added a new Title V on "economic and social cohesion". It was done on the insistence of the poorer countries. The Cohesion Fund was agreed at the Maastricht Summit (1991), to assist the "poor four" (Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal). 

Comitology (or, French, "Comitologie"): is used to denote the complex of issues that centre upon the various types of committee, which oversee the implementation of EU law. In 1987 the three basic types of committee were laid down as follows:

• An advisory committee, which is empowered to deliver "Opinions" on Commission proposals; the Commission is required only to "take utmost account" of such Opinions.
• A management committee, which similarly delivers Opinions on Commission proposals; in this case the Commission can be forced to incorporate the Committee's Opinion by the Council acting by qualified majority.
• A regulatory committee is similar to a management committee, except that in the event of the rejection of a Commission proposal or the failure to deliver an Opinion the matter is referred to the Council.

Committee of the Regions: an advisory body, set up under the Maastricht Treaty.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): was established under the Treaty of Rome for supporting agriculture. It is a protectionist policy

Common Commercial Policy: or external trade policy, specified under the Treaty of Rome. The defining characteristic is the customs union with internal tariffs eliminated and a Common External Tariff (CET). The CET is also known as the Common Customs Tariff (CCT).

Common Fisheries Policy (CFP): the first CFP was drawn up by the Six in the early 1970s with a view to presenting the then applicant states - Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the UK - with a fait accompli. Fishing grounds, outside the 12-mile coastal exclusion zones, are an EU "common resource". (But note that "traditional fishing rights" of certain other countries have to be respected for the 6 to 12-mile limits.) It operates a system of total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas.

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP): is one of the two intergovernmental pillars of the Maastricht Treaty. The CSFP embraces all those means by which the EU seeks to exercise influence in foreign-affairs and is developing a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

Common Market: in the UK effectively synonymous with the European Economic Community established under the Treaty of Rome. The "Common Market" was never intended to be a free trade area.

Common transport policy: seen as increasingly important and related to trans-European networks (TENs, which cover telecommunications and energy infrastructures as well as transport) and the Single European Sky (the harmonisation of air traffic across the EU).   

"Communautaire": in the spirit of the Community, that is, integrationist.

Communitization: when an area of policy is brought within the ambit of the institutions and decision-making procedures set out in the Treaty of Rome.

Competences: the EU's legal powers. "Competence" is the right to decide or legislate in a given field of activity.

Competition policy: Competition policy (covering state aids, mergers and takeovers) is one of the areas in which the Commission is at its most powerful. The Treaty of Rome (1957) contained Articles 85 and 86 on competition policy, such was the significance given to it by the EEC's founding fathers. The Commission can ban mergers if it concludes that they would create or strengthen a dominant market position that would significantly impede effective competition, within the EU or a substantial part of it. The EU Takeovers Directive was adopted in April 2004 - it has now been implemented in the UK, by means of interim statutory provisions and amendments to the Takeover Code.

Compliance: individual member states' application of EU Directives (and other EU legal instruments).

Concentric circles: see flexibility.

Constitution: the set of fundamental rules governing the politics of a nation or sub-national body.

Constitution of the EU: the EU currently has no formal constitution. (The Constitutional Treaty would change this if ratified and enforced.) The EU's essential structure currently revolves round 2 documents:

• The 1957 Treaty of Rome (establishing the European Economic Community, EEC), as amended by the1986 SEA, the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam and the 2001 Treaty of Nice.
• The two intergovernmental pillars of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, as amended by the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam and the 2001 Treaty of Nice.

Constitutional Treaty: see Treaties.

Convention on the Future of Europe: set up to prepare the Constitutional Treaty in 2002, under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. 

Convergence criteria: the Maastricht Treaty's criteria for eligibility for euro membership.

COREPER, "Comité des représentants permanents": the Committee of the Permanent Representatives.

Corpus Juris: literally "body of law", was drawn up by a group of 8 academic lawyers at the behest of the European Commission and published in April 1997. Its status is that of an independent report. The authors' paper envisaged a public prosecutor, with EU-wide powers of arrest, deportation, detention and committal to trial. The Constitutional Treaty recommended the setting up of a powerful European Public Prosecutor's (EPP) Office, as envisaged by the Corpus Juris.

Cotonou Agreement: replaced the Lomé Convention in June 2000 as the EU's principal instrument of development policy. It was signed by the EU member states and 77 developing African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It was concerned with the economic, cultural and social development of the ACP states.

Council of Economic and Finance Ministers (Ecofin): the second most important divisions of the Council of Ministers after the General Affairs Council.

Council of Europe: this is not an EU institution. It was founded in 1949 to encourage economic and social co-operation in Europe.  

Council of Ministers (also known as the Council, the EU Council, or, increasingly, the Council of the European Union): is the principal decision-making body within the EU. It has both executive and legislative powers, the former delegated in many areas to the European Commission and the latter in some areas exercised jointly with the European Parliament. It is not to be confused with the "European Council".

Court of Auditors: has the remit of auditing all the EU institutions as well as the official bodies in the member states which receive Community funds.  

Court of First Instance (CFI): set up under the Single European Act, with the purpose of relieving the overburdened Court of Justice of certain, specified, categories of action.

Court of Justice: is the final arbiter in disputes arising from the Community Treaties or the legislation based upon them.

Court of Human Rights: see European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Customs Union: an area with free internal trade but a common external wall of tariffs or quotas. See also free trade area.

Czechoslovakia: was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.

Decision: see legal instruments.

Declaration: see legal instruments.

Democratic deficit: this refers to the lack of proper democratic and parliamentary supervision and accountability of EC decision-making procedures.

Derogation: a temporary waiver from a Regulation or a Directive.

D'Hondt system: named after a Belgian political scientist, the D'Hondt system is widely used in continental Europe as a feature of various forms of proportional representation. It is also used within the institutions of the EU (especially the European Parliament) as a formula for distributing a fixed number of positions (such as committee chairs) among groups of different numerical strengths or among various nationalities. 

Direct effect: the principle that rights under Community law may apply directly to EU citizens, regardless of whether they have been enacted into national law. 

Directive: see legal instruments.

Directorates-General (DGs): a DG is the main administrative unit within the European Commission. Each Commissioner is responsible for one or more DGs.

Dual mandate: in the EU someone who is a member both of a national parliament and the European Parliament is said to hold a "dual mandate".

Ecofin: see Council of Economic and Finance Ministers (Ecofin).

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU): the development of the single currency ("the euro") has been a major part of this endeavour. The euro was launched in January 1999 with 11 member states, Greece joined in 2001 and Slovenia in 2007. Monetary policy for the "Eurozone" is decided by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Economic and Social Committee (ESC, EcoSoc): an advisory body, set up under the Treaty of Rome.

Enhanced cooperation: see flexibility.

Electoral Commission: was set up under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000) (UK), to supervise the financial restrictions on parties, oversee referendums and have broad responsibility for electoral law.

Enarque: the colloquial name for a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the elite French institute of higher education dedicated to preparing young people for careers in public administration. 

Enlargement: the process by which countries join the EU. The EU (and predecessors) has grown from 6 countries in 1957 to 27 in 2007.

Escalator (or "Passerelle") clause: the Constitutional Treaty has a qualified majority ("escalator" or "Passerelle") clause, which would allow the European Council to replace unanimity requirements (the "special legislative procedure") with QMV (the "ordinary legislative procedure") in any area it wishes, without seeking the consent of national parliaments or the European Parliament. This means that national vetoes would be permanently under threat.

EU law: the EU's main legal instruments are applicable to the first pillar, the Community, rather than to the second and third pillars, which are mainly formulated as inter-governmental responsibilities. For the second and third pillars, instead of legal instruments, the Council of Ministers, for example, adopts "common positions" and takes "joint actions". "EU law" (EU legislation) is, therefore, effectively synonymous with "Community law", the law of the first pillar. See also legal instruments. 

Euro: see Economic and Monetary Union.

Eurocorps: originally proposed by President Mitterand and Chancellor Kohl in 1991 for joint armed forces; Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain have also joined Eurocorps. The Eurocorps members have agreed to transform Eurocorps into a Rapid Reaction Corps for use by both the EU and NATO. Note that this Rapid Reaction Corps is not the same as the EU Rapid Reaction Force.

Eurogroup: the informal meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the Eurozone.

Eurojust: the European Body for the Enhancement of Judicial Cooperation was set up in 2002. Its role is "facilitating the proper coordination of national prosecution authorities and...supporting criminal investigations in organised crime cases...as well as...cooperating closely with the European Judicial Network."

Europe Agreements: see Agreements.

European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF, FEOGA): was set up in 1972. It has two sections: (1) the guidance section, which pays for modernisation and improvement; (2) the guarantee section, which supports, wherever necessary, the prices of the main European agricultural products ensure the maintenance of farmers' incomes.

European Arrest Warrant: proposed instrument replacing existing extradition procedures between member states. The EAW would expose citizens of one member state to the legal system of another without allowing recourse to their own judicial or representative authorities.

European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC, Euratom): set up by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom or EAEC) Treaty (1957).  

European Central Bank (ECB): see Economic and Monetary Union.

European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP): an agency set up in 1975 to advise the commission on vocational matters.

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC): set up under the Treaty of Paris (signed 1951) in 1952. The ECSC Treaty expired in July 2002.

European Commission (Commission or Commission of the European Communities): the Commission is unique among international bureaucracies by virtue of its combination of administrative, executive, legislative and judicial activities and responsibilities. In a strict sense the Commission is the "college" of the Commissioners, headed by the President of the Commission. 

European Communities:

• The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, Treaty of Paris, 1951). The ECSC ceased to exist in July 2002.
• The "European Economic Community" (EEC or "Common Market", Treaty of Rome, 1957). In the Maastricht Treaty the EEC was officially renamed "the European Community" (EC).
• The European Atomic Energy Community (by a 2^nd Treaty of Rome, known as the Euratom or EAEC Treaty, 1957).

Since the 1965 Merger Treaty the three Communities have shared the same institutions while remaining legally distinct, and have always had the same membership. Since the Maastricht Treaty came into effect, the Council of Ministers of the European Communities has called itself the Council of the EU. The European Commission is still formally the Commission of the European Communities.

European Community (EC) or "Community": originally strictly the European Economic Community, which was formally renamed the European Community in the Maastricht Treaty. However, the phrase European Community had been used in common parlance to denote the EEC with/without the ECSC and Euratom from the early 1980s.

European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO): has been replaced by the Humanitarian Aid Office (HAO).

European Company Statute: the original proposal dates back to 1975, as an attempt by the Commission to facilitate the creation of new multinational companies. A Regulation on the European Company ("Societas Europaea") and a separate Directive on employee involvement  in the European Company were adopted in October 2001.

European Convention on Human Rights: formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Convention was drawn under the auspices of the (non-EU) Council of Europe and signed in Rome in 1950. It was incorporated into English law through the Human Rights Act (1998). The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) operates under the aegis of the Council of Europe and is located in Strasbourg.

European Council: this is the name given to the regular meetings (sometimes known as "summits") of the heads of state or of government of the member states of the EU and the president of the European Commission. In the 1986 SEA, the frequency of the meetings was laid down as "at least twice a year" (including meetings at the end of member states' Presidencies) and the list of those entitled to attend was extended to include the foreign ministers and an additional Commissioner. These "summits" are not a formal EC institution but have become central to the EC. They are not to be confused with the Council of Ministers or the non-EU Council of Europe.

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): see European Convention on Human Rights. It is not to be confused with the European Court of Justice.

European Court of Justice (ECJ): see Court of Justice.

European Currency Unit (ECU): a transitional artificial currency which existed from 1981 to 1999, when it was replaced by the euro. Its predecessor was the European Unit of Account (EUA). The ECU's value was calculated by weighting the EEC's (EU's) national currencies. The Maastricht Treaty provided that the "ECU" would become the single currency and the composition of the ECU "basket" was fixed in 1993. But in 1995 the European Council the name "ECU" was abandoned in favour of the "euro".

European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): the position was created in 2001. The EDPS's responsibility id to make sure that all EU institutions and bodies respect people's right to privacy when processing their personal data.

European Defence Agency (EDA): was established in July 2004, "to support the member states in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the ESDP as it stands now and develops in the future". It is one of the agencies of the ESDP.

European Defence Community (EDC): The European Defence Community (EDC) Treaty, based on Pleven plan of 1950, was signed by the six ECSC countries in 1952. After the EDC Treaty was rejected by French Parliament, the EDC was abandoned (in 1954).

European Economic Area (EEA): was established by a Treaty signed in 1992. The EEA incorporates the highly regulated Single Market. Its members are the EU27 and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The Treaty, an Association Agreement, came into force in 1994. Portions of the acquis communautaire apply throughout the EEA thus non-EU members are subject to legislation over which they have no direct influence. They are not, however and for example, committed to the CFSP, CAP, EMU and the CFP (which would be of great significance for Norway and Iceland if they were full EU members) and they are not committed to cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs. Switzerland signed the EEA Treaty but, as it was rejected in a referendum in 1992, Switzerland is not a member of the EEA.

European Economic Community (EEC): set up under the 1957 European Economic Community (EEC) Treaty, "the" Treaty of Rome. See also "European Communities".

European Environment Agency: an agency of the EU, dealing with the environment.

European Evidence Warrant (EEW): is an order, which would be issued by a judicial authority in one member state and directly recognised and enforced in another member state. It was agreed in June 2006.

European Free Trade Area (EFTA): in 1960 the UK took the lead in forming EFTA (with Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland - known as the "seven"). Finland (associate member from 1961 and full member from 1986), Iceland (member from 1970) and Liechtenstein joined later. The current members of EFTA are Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland - they have close links through the EEA with the EU (except Switzerland). 

European Investment Bank (EIB): its main role is the financing of capital investments in the member states and in certain non-member countries, especially in the Mediterranean and developing countries associated with the EU through the Cotonou Agreement.   

European Investment Fund (EIF): involves both the EIB and privately owned banks in investments in Trans-European networks (TENs) and in the encouragement of SMEs. It was set up in March 1994.

European Monetary Institute (EMI): established in 1994 and the precursor of the ECB; the ECB succeeded the EMI in 1999.

European Monetary System (EMS): the two components were the European Currency Unit (ECU), now defunct, and the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): is concerned with the EU's relations with those countries with whom it shares land or sea borders - it was developed in 2004. 

European Parliament: the members are elected every 5 years. It now possesses legislative, supervisory and budgetary powers.

European Patent Convention: was originally signed in 1973 and set up the European Patent Office (EPO). Its members comprise the member states of the EU, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland, Turkey and Cyprus.

European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF or EURRF): is a transnational force managed by the EU itself rather than any of its member states. 60,000 soldiers have been available since 1 January 2007. Note that ERRF is not the same as the Rapid Reaction Corps (see Eurocorps).

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF): established in 1972, to assist the less-favoured regions of the EU.  

European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP): is part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The aim of the ESDP is to complete, and thus strengthen, the EU's external ability to act autonomously (independently of NATO) through the development of civilian and military capabilities for international conflict prevention and crisis management. It has 3 agencies: (1) The European Defence Agency (EDA), (2) The EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and (3) The EU Satellite Centre (EUSC). It was referred to in the Constitutional Treaty as the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

European Social Charter: the non-EU Council of Europe's charter on employment rights, signed in Turin in 1961. It is not to be confused with the EU's "Social Charter" or the EU's "Social Chapter".

European Social Fund: the oldest of the EU's structural funds, established under the Treaty of Rome.  

European Social Model: the concept is not unambiguous, but the European social model is generally associated with:

• "Social protection": there is generous welfare provision, not least of all for the unemployed, which is costly and, unless allied with very active labour market policies for getting unemployed people back to work, acts as a disincentive to employment.
• "Employment protection": there are extensive and costly labour market regulations that contribute to inflexible labour markets. Employers are reluctant to take on employees, a feature that is exacerbated by high social on-costs for employers. There is also an emphasis on "social partners".
• "Protectionism" in product markets: there is a reluctance to open up competitive markets either internally or externally. Protectionism is especially rife in agriculture.
• Partly as a consequence of generous welfare spending, the public sector is a high proportion of GDP.

European Union (EU): denotes the supranational institutions of the European Community together with the two "pillars" of intergovernmental cooperation between member states. The EU was formally created by the Maastricht Treaty (the Treaty on the European Union, TEU).

Europol (the European Police Office): was set up to facilitate cooperation between police forces of member states in order to combat serious international crime.

Eurosclerosis: hardening of Europe's economic arteries. A term used to denote stagnation arising from rigid labour laws, high social costs, heavy taxation and over-regulation - in other words, the failure of the socialist European Social Model. 

Eurozone: those states in the single currency area, using the euro.

Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM): a system of fixed but adjustable exchange rates.

Factortame case: this case arose when a Spanish-owned company, but British registered to enable its owner to exploit the British fishing quota, sought a judicial review of certain provisions of the British Merchant Shipping Act 1988 - which sought to outlaw "quota hopping". These provisions were alleged to be discriminatory in respect of the rules for registering fishing vessels as British. The Court of Justice's ruling in favour of the companies served to underline the primacy of EU (Community) law over national law.

Fiche d'impact: appended to every important legislative proposal from the European Commission is a (usually rather cursory) assessment of its impact, known as the "fiche d'impact".

Financial perspective: the EU's budgetary procedure, whose main goal is to guarantee the budgetary discipline of the EU. They are as follows:

• 5-year period, 1988-92, following Delors I, "Making a success of the Single Act", underpinned the Single Market.
• 7-year period, 1993-99, following Delors II, "From the Single Act to Maastricht and beyond", underpinned Maastricht.
• 7-year period, 2000-06, connected with Agenda 2000, underpinned enlargement.
• 7-year period, 2007-2013.

Fiscal harmonisation: the legal process of standardisation implicit in the creation of the single market as applied to taxes in order to create "level playing fields", prevent "unfair" competition and prevent "fiscal dumping". The Community's competence used to be strictly confined to VAT and other indirect taxes (including the droit de suite), but there have been plans for a voluntary code of conduct vis-à-vis business taxes and proposals to impose an EU-wide withholding tax on savings. See also "harmonisation".

Flexibility (or "differentiated integration" or "closer cooperation"): where there are arrangements within the EU, which depart from the principle that all member states must move towards the same objectives at the same pace. Some related ideas are:

• "Enhanced/reinforced cooperation": where, by removing the veto of non-participating countries, some member states move ahead quicker with integration than others. The Treaty of Nice institutionalised the procedure.
• "Variable geometry" or "À la carte Europe": in which member states decide whether or not to participate in certain activities. In other words, the idea that not every country need sign up to every policy (it can opt-out), whilst some can cooperate more closely.
• "Concentric circles": where there are circles of degrees of integration.
• Two/multi-speed, two/multi-tier Europe: where countries adopt integrationist policies at different rates, but have a common destination. "Two-speed Europe" was set out in the Tindemans Report (1975), which sought to recognise the fact that not all member states were willing and able to proceed towards integration at the same pace.

Flexibility clause: the flexibility clause of the Consitutional Treaty supplies the means to extend the powers of the Constitution without going through the proper ratification process in each member state. This clause states that the Council (acting unanimouosly on a proposal from the Commission and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament) shall take "the appropriate measures" to achieve an objective of the Constitution, if the Constitution has not provided the necessary powers. 

Fortress Europe: the defence of Europe's economic interests through protectionism rather than adaptation to the global market. 

"Four freedoms": these underpin the single or internal market. They are: (1) the free movement of goods, (2) the free movement of persons, (3) freedom to provide services and (4) the free movement of capital (as laid out in the Treaty of Rome).

Francovich case: this case established the principle that the adoption of a Directive by the Council of Ministers confers rights on individuals, even in the event of a member state having failed to transpose the Directive into national law. This landmark ruling was made by the Court of Justice in 1990. 

Free trade area: a free trade area differs from a customs union in that each of the member countries may have its own individual tariffs or other trading arrangements with third party states, whereas in a customs union there is a uniform external trade regime. In both models there are no internal tariffs. EU member states' trading relationships with 3^rd countries are those of a customs union and not of a free trade area. 

Galileo: the EU's European Space Agency is developing the Galileo satellite system, which is due to be in place by 2008 and to be directed from the EU Satellite Centre (EUSC).

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT): the organisation, which originally came into effect in 1948, charged with overseeing the orderly conduct of international trade, the lowering of tariffs and the resolution of disputes. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) succeeded GATT in 1995. The GATT "rounds", which resulted in the general lowering of tariffs, were:

• Geneva (1947).
• Annecy (1949).
• Torquay (1951).
• Geneva (1955-56).
• Geneva ("Dillon") (1959-62).
• Geneva ("Kennedy") (1963-67).
• Geneva ("Tokyo") (1973-79).
• Geneva ("Uruguay") (1986-94).

Generalized System of Preferences (GSP): is a system of tariff preferences. It is intended to benefit exports of manufactured goods and processed products from developing countries.

Greenland: withdrew from the European Communities in February 1985 following a referendum in 1982.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a year, before the deduction of the consumption of fixed capital.

Gross National Product (GNP): equals GDP + net property and employment income from abroad. It is synonymous with Gross National Income (GNI). Ireland's GDP is significantly higher than its GNP, for example, because it has a large (negative) balance on property income from abroad. The UK's Blue Book of National Accounts uses the following identity for the relationship between GNI and GDP: GNI=GDP + (net compensation receipts from employees from the rest of the world (ROW)) - (taxes on products paid to the rest of the world, net of subsidies received from the ROW) + (other subsidies on production, net) + (net property & entrepreneurial income from ROW).

Harmonisation (or "approximation"): the legal process of standardisation implicit in the creation of the single market as applied to, for example, products, services, taxation ("fiscal harmonisation"), trading arrangements and labour markets (labour market or "social harmonisation"). Harmonisation is intended to create "level playing fields", prevent "unfair" competition and "fiscal and social dumping". ("Level playing fields" are said to occur when there is "equal and undistorted" competition.) Harmonisation is frequently associated with heavy regulation, in order to tame the "chaotic nature" of free markets, which undermines the competitiveness of some of the less heavily regulated member states. It is profoundly hostile to genuine free markets.

International Court of Justice: this is an institution of the UN, not the EC.

Intergovernmental: used to describe relationships in the EU which are not subject to Community law or governed by supranational EU institutions. "Intergovernmentalism" is both a theory of integration and a term used to describe institutional arrangements and decision-making procedures that allow governments to cooperate in specific fields while retaining their sovereignty.

Intergovernmental Conference (IGC): IGCs are summoned whenever a new Community Treaty is in the offing. IGCs to date are:

Internal market: usually seen as equivalent to the single market and is used to distinguish economic activity within the member states of the EU from external trade.

Joint Research Centre (JRC): was created under the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC). Its work is no longer confined to nuclear research.

"Juste retour": the phrase "juste retour" became current 1979-85 at the time of the British budget problem and meant that each member state should receive from the budget a "fair return", i.e. sums roughly equivalent to contributions. A more wide-raging definition of the term takes into account relative prosperity etc.

Justice and Home Affairs (JHA): Maastricht's 3^rd pillar.

Laeken Declaration: the Declaration (December 2001) setting up the Convention on the Future of Europe, which led to the Constitutional Treaty, stated: "The Union stands at the crossroads, a defining moment in its existence. The unification of Europe is near. At long last, Europe is on its way to becoming one big family".

Legal certainty: although nowhere defined in the Treaties, is an important principle of EU law, which has had some influence on cases before the Court of Justice. It requires union law and the national law derived from Union law to be coherent, unambiguous, accessible and clear with respect to its scope, purpose, effect and validity, and to be consistently applied.    

Legal instruments: there are three formal legal instruments (Regulations, Directives and Decisions) and also less formal legal instruments (Recommendations and Opinions). Resolutions and Declarations, whilst not legal instruments and having no legal force, are included: 

• Regulations: are of "general application" and are "binding in their entirety and directly applicable in all Member States". There is no need for enabling national legislation. Regulations are the main instruments of CAP and the CFP.
• Directives: are binding, but have to be first enacted nationally before obtaining legal force. In other words, there has to be national enabling legislation. A directive is, therefore, an instruction by the Community to member states to legislate on a particular matter - and within a defined period of time.
• Decisions: are "binding in their entirety upon those to whom they are addressed". A Decision is similar to a Regulation in that there is no need for national enabling legislation, but it is more narrowly focussed. Decisions are made by the Council or the Commission and are derived from the authority bestowed by the treaties or through Regulations or Directives already approved.
• Recommendations and Opinions: "have no binding force". Some authorities classify them as "legal instruments", others do not. They were included in the Treaty of Rome.
• Resolutions: embody a firm political consensus, but in a strict sense have no legal force.
• Declarations: the results of the discussions at European Council meetings are the "conclusions of the presidency"; latterly, they have been supplemented by Declarations embodying more detailed points of substance. These Declarations have no legal force, but can point to future legislative action.

Legal personality: a legal entity, sometimes referred to as legal personality, is a legal construct which the law allows a group of persons to act as if they were a single person for certain purposes. The European Community has a "legal personality" and has a comprehensive legal system comprising legal structures, legislative procedures and legal instruments.  The 3-pillared European Union, comprising the European Community and two pillars run along intergovernmental lines, does not.

Legislation/primary (UK): public Bills, as opposed to private Bills which specifically affect the powers of particular bodies or the rights of certain individuals, must normally be passed by both Houses and may start in either House, with the exception of finance Bills which must start in the Commons. Taking the example of a Bill starting in the Commons the stages for the passage of a Bill are as follows:

• Commons: First Reading, Second Reading, Committee Stage, Report Stage, Third Reading;
• Lords: the Bill goes through a similar procedure to the Commons;
• If the bill is amended by the Lords, it is returned to the Commons for consideration of the amendments - if Commons rejects Lords' amendments and/or makes further amendments the Bill can go back to the Lords;
• Royal Assent, which may be given by the Queen personally or by three Lords Commissioners and which converts a Bill into an Act of Parliament.

Legislation/secondary (UK): when Parliament delegates the power to make orders, regulations or rules to some other person or body that has the force of law. Such legislation is known as delegated or subordinate legislation. Delegated legislation comprises:

• Orders in Council, i.e. Orders made by the Queen in (Privy) Council. In practice, the Minister of a Government department usually drafts and makes the Order in the name of the Queen, whose approval "in Council" is a formality;
• Statutory instruments, departmental orders, regulations, rules, circulars or codes of practice. A statutory instrument, formerly known as statutory rules and orders, is any delegated legislation to which the Statutory Instruments Act 1946 applies. Statutory instruments are normally made by government Ministers and must be submitted to Parliament - though most will be subject to negative resolution rather than affirmative resolution;
• By-laws which are made by local authorities, railways, water boards and other such bodies, and like statutory instruments, draw their authority from an Act of Parliament.

Legitimacy: when the legitimacy of the EU is called into question, the debate normally centres not upon whether or not its institutions are duly constituted but upon whether they, and the decision-making system of which they are essential components, possess the necessary democratic credentials.

Level playing field: see harmonisation.

Lomé Convention: signed in Lomé in 1975, was a comprehensive trade-an-aid development agreement between the member states of the EU and developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP states). The Convention was replaced in 2000 by the Cotonou Agreement.

Lisbon agenda: the Lisbon summit (March 2000) inaugurated a 10-year programme (the "Lisbon Agenda") to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world," progress to be reviewed every spring, with a commitment to "a European Area of Research and Innovation". It has not been successful and this has been acknowledged within the EU. A mid-term review was held in 2005.

Luxembourg Compromise: was an informal arrangement, arrived at by the Six in January 1966, whereby decisions which the Treaty of Rome foresaw being taken by majority voting in the Council of Ministers could be postponed until unanimous agreement had been reached.

Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union, TEU): see pillars and Treaties.

Majority voting: this is one of the ways in which decisions may be taken in the Council of Ministers (the other being unanimity). Simple majorities apply to a limited number of minor issues, usually of a procedural nature. Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) is a more usual procedure for voting. In QMV each country's votes are weighted by approximately population, and measures require a certain proportion of votes to pass.

Mergers: see competition policy.

Merger Treaty: see Treaties.

Molitor Group: was a committee of national experts (chairman, Bernhard Molitor) set up by the European Commission in 1994. The group was concerned with the legislative and administrative simplification of EU law and related national law, with a view to job creation, competitiveness, respect for subsidiarity and its impact on SMEs. The Group's report was presented in June 1995 at the Cannes meeting.

Mutual recognition: is the idea that goods and services, for example, are as acceptable in other member states' markets as in the originating domestic market. It is central to the operation of the single market, whether of product standards or of professional qualifications, for example. It increasingly applies to other areas of intra-EU activities.

Neutrality: a neutral state is one that adopts an attitude of impartiality between belligerents. See NATO.

Nice Treaty: see Treaties.

Non-tariff barriers: in addition to "tariff barriers", there are non-tariff barriers. These can be quantitative barriers (such as quotas) or qualitative barriers (such as different product specifications, discriminatory public purchasing policies, restrictive pricing or distribution agreements, patent or copyright difficulties, major discrepancies in the tax structure and so on).

Nordic Council: the five countries that participate in the Nordic Council (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) have a long history of contact of various kinds. By the end of 1952 the parliaments of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden had approved an agreement. Finland did not join until 1955 because of Soviet hostility. 

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO): main developments are:

• In 1948 Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK (5 countries) signed a 50-year agreement on economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence. This was the Brussels Treaty, forming the Western European Union (WEU).
• The US, Canada and the Brussels Treaty powers then negotiated the setting up of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a new collective security alliance that would be both a military organisation for the defence of Western Europe and a political alliance. The NATO Treaty was signed in 1949 by the Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway and Portugal as well as the US, Canada, the Brussels Treaty powers (12 countries in all).
• The following countries then joined NATO: Greece (1952), Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955, Germany after reunification in 1990), Spain (1982, confirmed by referendum in 1986), the Czech Republic (1999), Hungary (1999) and Poland (1999) (19 countries in all.)
• Seven other countries joined NATO in March 2004: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania.
• There are, therefore, currently 26 members of NATO: Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US.
• The "neutral" countries of Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland are notable absentees.

"Occupied field": an area of policy in which the EU is capable, under the Treaties, of taking legislative action. It may not have taken action, but the fact that it could, could inhibit national authorities from acting independently, since EU law enjoys primacy over national law in member states.

OLAF: the European Anti-Fraud Office, headed by the Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud. OLAF's mission is to protect the financial interests of the EU, fight fraud, corruption and any other illegal activity, including misconduct within the European institutions with financial consequences.

Ombudsman: set up under the Maastricht Treaty to deal with complaints concerning maladministration in the activities of the Community institutions and bodies (excluding the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance acting in their judicial role).

Open method coordination: this was first defined at the Lisbon meeting of the European Council (March 2000). It was "designed to help Member States to progressively develop their own policies". It entails fixing guidelines (accompanied by timetables), establishing indicators and benchmarks "as a means of comparing best practice", adjusting the guidelines so that they can be transposed to and applied at the national and regional level, and setting up systems for "periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer review".

Opinion: see legal instruments. 

Own resources: revenue of the EU is known as "own resources", the EU's revenue as of right, to distinguish it from the revenues made by member states to finance the Budget before the 1970 Decision.   

"Passerelle" clause: see escalator clause.

"Pause for reflection": in the wake of the two "no" votes on the Constitution in 2005 in France and the Netherlands, it was agreed to delay further formal legislative decisions.

Pillars: the Maastricht Treaty specified 3 pillars of the EU:

• Pillar 1: The traditional areas of the activity that were already pursued by the European Communities/Community including trade, agriculture, environment and employment issues.
• Pillar 2: Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
• Pillar 3: Cooperation on Justice and Home Affairs (JHA).

Political cooperation: eurospeak for foreign policy cooperation.

Preambles: the introductory Resolutions and Affirmations by the heads of state at the beginning of the EU's key treaties were written after the treaties had been formulated and serve to describe, in general terms, the issues agreed. Like the Declarations attached to the end of treaties, these preambles are not legally binding. They are, however, important in that they are intended to express the common political will among the contracting parties and to define the intentions of the Community. They, therefore, form the basis of interpretation of the treaties and the justification for any resultant legislation.     

Precautionary principle: "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence". It is a principle that is guaranteed to stifle risk-taking, however sensible, forward-looking and dynamic it may be. The EU has embraced the principle with enthusiasm. A Communication by the European Commission (COM(2000)1) set out how the Commission intended to apply the principle. And a Resolution on the Precautionary Principle was agreed at the meeting (summit) of the European Council in Nice (December 2000).

Presidency: the presidency of the Council of Ministers and European Council currently rotates among the member states every six months.

Primacy: the doctrine that Community law is superior to national law. The primacy of EU law over national law was established by the Court of Justice in Costa v ENEL (1964). The supremacy of the ECJ over national law courts allows the ECJ to establish primacy for European laws.

Proportionality: any action by the Community shall not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaty.

Protocol: protocols and Declarations (which do not have any legal force but can be of great political importance as pointers to future legislative action) are usually annexed to the Treaties. A protocol has legal force, and usually embodies detailed provision on matters touched on in a treaty to which it is attached. 

Qualified Majority Voting (QMV): see majority voting.

Rapid Reaction Force (RRF): see European Rapid Reaction Force.

Rapporteur: literally a reporter, the rapporteur is the spokesperson of a committee or presenter of a committee's report. 

Ratification: in international law this is the confirmation of an international agreement.

Recommendation: see legal instruments.

Reform Treaty: see Treaties

Regionalism: the idea that European integration along supranational lines would provide an overarching framework for the re-emergence of the regions of Europe (and hence the promotion of regionalism) can be traced back at least as far as the immediate post-war years.

Regional development policy: policies aimed at assisting the less-favoured regions of the EU.

Regulation: see legal instruments.

Resolution: by the Council of Ministers or the European Council is a type of decision not recognised in the original Treaties. It is used to embody a firm political consensus, yet in the strict sense has no legal force.

Right of initiative: denotes one of the essential prerogatives of the European Commission, its responsibility for drafting proposals for legislation under the Treaties. 

Rights: there are, arguably, two approaches to the concept of rights. The first approach is the right to protection from intrusion and/or oppression and which emphasises the need to be responsible and dutiful. The second approach, which is in the ascendant, is the right to assert a claim on others to provide, for example, benefits such as welfare, employment or positive discrimination.

Rome Treaty: see Treaties.

Rubber Articles: when the Commission uses Treaty Articles designed for the internal market (hence decided by QMV) in order to advance other aims.

Rules of origin: rules determining the deemed country of origin of a manufactured product. The purpose of such rules is to regulate the dutiable status of products containing inputs from more than one country. The Community has two types: non-preferential and preferential.  

Schengen Agreement and Convention: the main developments are:

• The Schengen Agreement started as an intergovernmental accord signed by Benelux, France and West Germany in 1985 "on the gradual abolition of (border) controls at the common frontier".
• The "Schengen Convention on the Application of the Agreement" was signed in 1990 by the original 5 signatories. It took practical effect in 1995.
• The Agreement and Convention, the rules adopted and related agreements together form the "Schengen acquis". Since 1999, when the Amsterdam Treaty came into force, this has formed part of the institutional and legal framework of the EU by virtue of a protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty. The Schengen acquis was divided between (1) the EU's 1^st pillar (illegal immigration, visas and asylum) and (2) the EU's 3^rd pillar (other issues).
• The Schengen agreements have been extended over time:
• Italy (signed 1990, implemented 1997).
• Spain & Portugal (signed 1991, implemented 1995).
• Greece (signed 1992, implemented 2000).
• Austria (signed 1995, implemented 1997).
• Finland, Sweden and Denmark (under special agreement, with exemptions) (signed 1996, implemented 2001).
• In 1996 a Schengen cooperation agreement was concluded with Norway and Iceland - implemented in March 2001.
• Ireland and the UK are only "partial participants" in the Schengen acquis.
• The 12 new member states have adopted the Schengen acquis, but a decision will be required of the Council of the EU before controls over their borders are lifted.
• Switzerland has begun to work towards joining the Schengen acquis and voted to join the Schengen area in a referendum in 2004.

"Schengen III": was signed in 2005 by Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, and concerned the deepening of cross-border cooperation. It is not part of the Schengen Treaty.

Schengen Information System (SIS): is an information system that allows the competent authorities in the member states to obtain information regarding certain persons and property. It was agreed in 2001, to set up a second general SIS (SIS II) - by 2006 - as a prerequisite to the 10 new member states participating in the Schengen area.

Scrutiny: the various procedures whereby national parliaments monitor and seek to influence legislation emanating from the EU.

Simplification: in the context of the EU, this refers to the efforts currently being made in the name of transparency to simplify legislation.

Single currency: the euro was launched in 1999 with 11 member states using the currency. There are now 13 countries.

Single European Act (SEA): see Single Market and the Treaties.

Single Market (internal market) and Single Market Programme: the Cockfield White Paper on obstacles to the functioning of the Single Market was produced for the June 1985 Milan summit. It identified some 300 measures and set the end of 1992 as the target date for completing the single market. The consequent Single Market Programme was known in the UK as the "1992 Programme". The Cockfield proposals were an important input to the Single European Act (SEA), which was signed in February 1986 and came into force in July 1987. There remain problems with the Single Market. Many subsequent developments, for example the Financial Services Action Plan, are associated with, arguably, much burdensome and costly bureaucracy.

Single Payment Scheme (SPS): in June 2003 EU farm ministers agreed reforms to the system for paying subsidies to farmers. Under the deal, most of the production-linked subsidies would be abolished ("de-coupled"). Farmers, in many cases, would receive a single payment, rather than a graded amount of money in line with the amount of food produced.

(The) Six: the 6 original members of the European Community: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Social Action Programme (SAP): was set up in 1974 and had the following major objectives: (1) attainment of full and better employment, (2) improvement and upward harmonisation of living and working conditions, (3) increased involvement of management and labour in the EC and of workers in the life of their firms, (4) implementation of a common vocational training policy.

Social Chapter: The Protocol on Social Policy and Agreement on Social Policy, the "Social Chapter", was appended to the Maastricht Treaty (1992). It is not to be confused with the Social Charter or the non-EU European Social Charter.  

Social Charter or "Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers": this was adopted by 11 of the then 12 EC member states (excluding the UK) in 1989. It covered the following 12 policy areas: (1) freedom of movement, (2) fair wages, (3) improvement of living and working conditions, (4) social protection, (5) freedom of association and collective bargaining, (6) vocational training, (7) equal opportunities, (8) worker consultation, (9) health, protection and safety in the workplace, (10) protection of children, (11) elderly persons, (12) disabled persons. Following on from this there was a 5-year Social Action Programme (SAP) to implement the Charter throughout the EU for 1990-1995. It is not to be confused with the non-EU's European Social Charter, although it is often referred to as the European Social Charter - which is confusing.

Social harmonisation: otherwise known as labour market harmonisation, "levelling playing fields" and preventing "social dumping".

Social Partners: unions and employers. They used to be known in the UK as the "two sides of industry".

Social Policy Agenda (SPA) or European Social Policy Agenda: was originally discussed at Lisbon (March 2000) and agreed at the Nice Summit (December 2000). The SPA set out to modernise the European social model, promote "more and better" jobs and convert commitments made at the Lisbon and Feira (June 2000) European Councils on their social dimension into concrete action.

Sovereignty: is the supreme authority in an independent political unit and cannot be shared. It is not to be confused with power. It implies the recognition of a state as having rights of jurisdiction over a particular people and territory, and being solely answerable for that jurisdiction in international law. Broadly a state can be said to be sovereign if it can make decisions without recourse to higher authority. Sovereignty, in other words, is where there is an exclusive and comprehensive right of independent action. Ultimately all member states of the EU retain sovereignty as they can leave the EU if they wish. It is frequently said that for many EU measures the member states have agreed to "pool" or "share" their sovereignty by undertaking to abide by majority decisions. But it is more accurate to regard such sovereignty as "delegated sovereignty", in which member states have delegated, indeed lost, powers to a supranational institution, the EU.

Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP): see Agreements.

Stability and Growth Pact (SGP): was agreed at the Dublin summit (December 1996) and adopted at Amsterdam (June 1997), in connection with EMU. The pact enjoined all parties to engage in prompt and vigorous implementation of the "excessive deficit procedure" (EDP), when necessary.

Structural funds: the collective name for the funds set up to assist underdeveloped, declining or economically stagnant regions of the EU. They are:

• The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF): is the central element of regional policy and was set up in 1975. In 1985 the rules governing the ERDF were changed in order to make them more flexible and more directed towards the least-favoured regions.
• The European Social Fund (ESF): supports human resource and equal opportunities schemes and training measures for the unemployed and young people. It was created under the original Treaty of Rome.
• The Guidance section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (FEOGA): supports agricultural restructuring and some rural development activities. The Guidance section counts as a Structural Fund, the Guarantee section is a central feature of the CAP and deployed on price support.
• The Cohesion Fund: was created by the Maastricht Treaty (1992) with the aim of accelerating economic convergence in the run-up to EMU. At that time the only recipients are Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Stuttgart Declaration (Solemn Declaration on the EU): was a wide-ranging statement concerning the institutions and policies of the European Community issued by the European Council meting in Stuttgart (June 1983).

Subsidiarity: where the Community will take action only if and insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by member states. It is the principle that decisions should be taken at the lowest level consistent with effective action within a political system. In an increasingly integrationist EU, "subsidiarity" is a clear loser.

Summit: meetings of heads of government are often referred to as summits. See also European Council.

Supremacy: see primacy.

Switzerland: in June 1992 the Swiss Government applied for EEA membership but withdrew the application after rejection by referendum (1992). In common with other EFTA states, Switzerland already had free trade arrangements for manufactured goods within the European Community. The Swiss rejected closer ties with the EU in a second referendum in 2001.  

Takeovers: see competition policy.

Tariff (or import levy): a duty that is levied on imports.

Tax harmonisation: see fiscal harmonisation.

Trans-European Networks (TENS): key transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructural networks   

Transitional period: normally refers to the period of grace during which a new member state may be allowed progressively to introduce and apply EU rules, the immediate adoption of which would cause difficulties.

Transparency: whereby decisions of the Community institutions are taken as openly as possible - not just to the clarity of the decision-making procedures but also to the extent to which the public has access to them.

Transport analogies: a much-loved "conceit". Britain, apparently, is forever "missing" European trains, boats, buses etc. The unspoken assumption is that these trains, boats, buses etc are heading in the "right" direction which, implicitly, is integrationist.

Treaties: the EU is based on and governed in accordance with a number of Treaties between member states. They are the most fundamental part of the acquis communautaire. The treaties are as follows:

Treaty on the European Community (EC) (TEC): the original Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community, updated by subsequent Treaties - primarily the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice.

Troika: the current presidency of the Council of Ministers, together with its immediate successor and predecessor.

Two-speed Europe: see "flexibility".

UKREP: the acronym for the UK Permanent Representation to the EU.

Unanimity: this is one of the ways in which decisions may be taken in the Council of Ministers (the other being majority voting ).

Variable geometry: see "flexibility".

Veto: is the mechanism which allows any member state to block a decision, both in the Council of Ministers and when member states' representatives are meeting outside the Council framework. Under the Maastricht Treaty the European Parliament, for example, has the right to veto legislation agreed in the Council of Ministers in some policy areas. National vetoes have been steadily reduced in successive treaties.   

Western European Union (WEU): its predecessor was called the Brussels Treaty Organisation set up by the Treaty of Brussels in 1948, with the following signatories: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK. In 1954 the BTO was modified to include West Germany and Italy to form the WEU. Its secretariat is in Paris. The WEU provides a forum for discussion and co-operation on matters of defence and security. The WEU is not an EC/EU institution but, the Maastricht Treaty proposed that the WEU would become the "defence component of the EU". This was strengthened in the Amsterdam Treaty in which WEU was defined as an integral part of the development of the EU. However, this was effectively deleted in the Nice Treaty. The WEU's operational activities were, nevertheless, transferred to the EU in 2000. The current members, observers, partners and guests are:

• 10 full members: Belgium (1948), France (1948), Germany (1954, West Germany), Greece (1995), Italy (1954), Luxembourg (1948), Netherlands (1948), Portugal (1990), Spain (1990) and the UK (1948) (10). All are members of the EU and NATO.
• 6 Associate members (agreed in Rome, 1992): the Czech Republic (1999), Hungary (1999), Poland (1999), Iceland (1992), Norway (1992) and Turkey (1992). These are NATO members but, at the time of joining, were not EU members.
• 5 Observers (agreed in Rome, 1992): Austria (1995), Denmark (1992), Finland (1995), Ireland (1992) and Sweden (1995). There are EU countries but not, except Denmark, in NATO.
• 7 Associate partners (agreed in Kirchberg, 1994): Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia (1996). At time of joining they were not in the EU nor in NATO. They have all since joined both.

Wider versus deeper: "deepening" means extending the range of the EU's activities and strengthening the EU's institutions, whilst "widening", though enlargement, is intended to achieve the opposite. 

World Customs Organisation (WCO): is an intergovernmental organisation that helps members communicate and cooperate on customs issues. It was established in 1952 as the Customs Cooperation Council and adopted the name WCO in 1994.

World Trade Organisation (WTO): the successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It was established under the Marrakesh Agreement of April 1994. The WTO suspended the "Doha Development Agenda" ("Doha Round") of trade talks in 2006, after major disagreements over continued trade subsidies. 

RL, April 2008