Maastricht Treaty

The Maastricht Treaty, formally the Treaty on European Union, is the founding treaty of the European Union, concluded in the Dutch city of Maastricht in February 1992 by the then twelve member states of the European Communities. It announced what its own text called "a new stage in the process of European integration," establishing a shared European Union citizenship held alongside national citizenship, laying out the path to a single European currency, and creating common foreign and security policy and cooperation on justice and home affairs alongside the existing economic community. The treaty also strengthened the powers of the European Parliament and expanded majority voting in the Council of Ministers, while leaving many key decisions in the hands of national governments acting collectively, a balance that fed a continuing debate about how far European integration should move toward a genuinely federal structure. That debate carried on through later treaties, including the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon.