On November 1, 1993, the Maastricht Treaty came into force and the European Union replaced the European Community that had preceded it. Twelve states were members at the start, from founding powers to newcomers who had joined after the Cold War split the continent.
The treaty had been signed in 1992 after hard debate in several countries, including a Danish vote that first rejected it and a French referendum that passed by a thin margin. It changed the shape of Europe.
The union gained a flag. The euro followed. The bloc was new.
Maastricht created European citizenship on top of national citizenship, set a timetable for a single currency that began as the euro in 1999, and gave the union shared foreign and security powers plus justice and home affairs cooperation, pushing the member states past the old economic community toward a political bloc with its own parliament and court that could bind them in ways the earlier body could not.
The union has grown well past twelve members since. The treaty's name still marks the moment Europe chose to govern itself as one block as well as many nations, a choice whose limits and strengths the members still argue over today.
Britain stayed out at first and left altogether in 2020 after a referendum, the first state to exit, showing that the union built at Maastricht could also be unmade by a vote of its own people.
Britain stayed out at first and left altogether in 2020 after a referendum, the first state to exit, showing that the union built at Maastricht could also be unmade by a vote of its own people.