Editing European Economic Community (section)

===European Community===

The EU absorbed the European Communities as one of its [[three pillars of the European Union|three pillars]]. The EEC's areas of activities were enlarged and were renamed the ''European Community'', continuing to follow the [[Supranational union|supranational]] structure of the EEC. The EEC institutions became those of the EU, however the Court, Parliament and Commission had only limited input in the new pillars, as they worked on a more [[International organization|intergovernmental]] system than the European Communities. This was reflected in the names of the institutions, the council was formally the "Council of the ''European Union''" while the commission was formally the "Commission of the ''European Communities''".

There are more competencies listed in Article 3 of the European Communities pillar than there are in Article 3 of the Treaty of Rome. This is due to the fact that some competencies were already inherent in the Treaty of Tome, some were referred to in the Treaty of Rome, and some were extended under Article 235 of the Treaty of Rome. Competencies were added to cover trans-European networks, and the work of the Culture Committee and Education Committee that were previously sharing existing competencies. The only entry in Article 3 that represented something new is the competence covering the entry and movement of persons in the internal market.

However, after the Treaty of Maastricht, Parliament gained a more formal role. Maastricht brought in the [[codecision procedure]], which gave it equal legislative power with the Council on Community matters. This replaced the informal parliamentary blocking powers established by the 1979 Isoglucose decision.<ref>Case 138/79</ref>

It also abolished any existing [[State (polity)|state]] like [[Simple Majority]] voting in the EEC, replacing it with [[Voting in the Council of the European Union|Qualified Majority Voting]], a procedure more commonly used in international organisations.

The [[Treaty of Amsterdam]] transferred responsibility for free movement of persons (e.g., [[Travel visa|visas]], [[illegal immigration]], [[Right of asylum|asylum]]) from the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar to the European Community (JHA was renamed [[Area of freedom, security and justice|Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters]] (PJCC) as a result).<ref name="Folk">[http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/euo_en/spsv/all/12/ What are the three pillars of the EU?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523080044/http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/euo_en/spsv/all/12/ |date=23 May 2010 }}, Folketingets EU-Oplysning</ref> Both Amsterdam and the [[Treaty of Nice]] also extended [[codecision procedure]] to nearly all policy areas, giving Parliament equal power to the Council in the Community.

In 2002, the [[Treaty of Paris (1951)|Treaty of Paris]] which established the ECSC expired, having reached its 50-year limit (as the first treaty, it was the only one with a limit). No attempt was made to renew its mandate; instead, the [[Treaty of Nice]] transferred certain of its elements to the [[Treaty of Rome]] and hence its work continued as part of the EC area of the European Community's remit.

After the entry into force of the [[Treaty of Lisbon]] in 2009 the pillar structure ceased to exist. The European Community, together with its [[legal person]]ality, was absorbed into the newly consolidated European Union which merged in the other two pillars (however Euratom remained distinct). This was originally proposed under the [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]] but that treaty failed ratification in 2005.