In 1992 the member countries of the EU signed the Treaty of Maastricht in the Dutch town of the same name. This document supplements and amends the Treaty of Paris in the year 1951.

The Maastricht Treaty is also known as the Treaty on European Union. This was subsequently amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997.

Structure

The treaty is divided into three parts, but their editors prefer to call them pillars. These are:

·  The Community dimension is the central pillar. It includes provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community, the ECSC and Euratom such as citizenship or economic and monetary union.

·  The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) or second pillar. It is covered by Title V of the Treaty on European Union. With this pillar is looking for the creation of a common defense policy.

·  The Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), or third pillar is covered by Title VI of the Treaty on European Union and its main aim is the free movement of persons.

Objectives of the Treaty

Each of the pillars presents a series of points to keep in mind. Some of the most important are:

·  First pillar or central:

- Recognition of a European citizenship.

- Creation of the Economic and Monetary Union (CEU) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

- Creation of a single currency under the name Euro (€).

- Birth of the Cohesion Fund as a means of transfer between member countries.

-   Regulation of education and training through such measures as the birth of Erasmus, Socrates and Da Vinci.

·  Second pillar:

- Allows carry out operations in foreign policy and defense policy among member countries.

·  Third pillar:

- Creation of a European police force: Europol.

 Approval Process

The adoption of this treaty was torn apart by three crises that took place in Europe over the year 1992. These crises were:

·  The war in Yugoslavia showed that the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

·  Serious economic crisis which caused the jobless rate rose at an alarming rate, becoming the first problem to solve by members of the EU.

·  Serious currency crises on the continent that made clear to the Economic and Monetary Union (CEU) and the objectives intended to carry out.

Treaty of Paris

It was a traatado signed in the city of Paris in April of the year 1951 by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The Treaty of Paris of 1951 that created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the Treaty of Rome of 1957 that created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Commonwealth European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the Single European Act European 1986.

Treaty of Amsterdam

The Amsterdam Treaty was adopted in 1997 but came into force on May 1, 1999 after having been accepted by all member countries. This legislation was created as a revision of the Maastricht Treaty.

One of the main features was that everything related to the free movement of persons, which was previously under the third pillar gradually transformed part of the first.