The European Communities (sometimes referred to as the European Community or EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).
They shared the same governing institutions (those of the EEC) from 1967 until those institutions became those of the European Union (EU). The European Communities operated as the largest of the EU's three pillars until the EEC (renamed the European Community in 1993) was absorbed when the pillar system was abolished. The ECSC expired in 2002 but Euratom remains as a distinct entity, the only one of the three communities to exist beyond 2009.
Read more about European Communities: Institutions, Members, Policy Areas
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or communities:
“Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skins and furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
—A.J. (Arthur James)