Signed 8 April 1965 Dates 8 Apr 1965 – 1 May 1999 | Effective 1 July 1967 Location Brussels, Belgium | |
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Type Merging the judicial, legislative and administrative bodies of the three European communities Expiration 1 May 1999 (Treaty of Amsterdam) Parties "The Six" (original signatories)
Belgium
France
West Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands Depositary Government of the Italian Republic | ||
The Merger Treaty (or Brussels Treaty) was a European treaty which combined the executive bodies of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) into a single institutional structure.
The treaty was signed in Brussels on 8 April 1965 and came into force on 1 July 1967. It set out that the Commission of the EEC and the Council of the EEC should replace the Commission and Council of Euratom and the High Authority and Council of the ECSC. Although each Community remained legally independent, they shared common institutions (prior to this treaty, they already shared a Parliamentary Assembly and Court of Justice) and were together known as the European Communities. This treaty is regarded by some as the real beginning of the modern European Union.
This treaty was abrogated by the Amsterdam Treaty signed in 1997:
Without prejudice to the paragraphs following hereinafter, which have as their purpose to retain the essential elements of their provisions, the Convention of 25 March 1957 on certain institutions common to the European Communities and the Treaty of 8 April 1965 establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities, but with the exception of the Protocol referred to in paragraph 5, shall be repealed.