THE TREATIES OF MAASTRICHT, AMSTERDAM, AND NICE

The Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, along with the following treaties of Amsterdam and Nice, were the consequences of European development in the field of integration. They just were the next logical step after the Single European Act, following the pattern based on the spillover effect; further integration solves different problems, as the mentioned treaty of 1986 improved the performance of the Common Market in the European communities, but also generated new problems that could be solved only with deeper integration, with a new treaty, with the Treaty of Maastricht. According to this development, the European Union is just a part of the process and never the final shape of the European organization. Hence this research analyses the contribution of these three treaties to the integration of Europe focusing on what existing problems they solved and what new problems they generated. Some of the new necessities created by these essential treaties were solved by the treaty of Lisbon, but others still need to be addressed. The three treaties are important for Europe because they meant a great step forward in terms of integration, as they created the European Union (before European Communities) and some other fundamental milestones as the common currency the Euro.