The European Union was formally established on 1 November 1993, when the Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union) entered into force.

Key date

  • The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by 12 European countries.
  • The treaty then came into force on 1 November 1993, which is widely taken as the date the EU was “born” as a single political and economic union.

Earlier foundations

  • The EU’s roots go back to earlier communities, especially the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Economic Community (1957), which began the process of European integration after World War II.
  • Many official and educational sources describe 1993 as the year the European Union was “officially created,” while noting that its historical origins stretch back to the 1950s projects of economic and political cooperation.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.