Intergovernmental Organ izations 233In 1986, the most impor tant step was taken in deepening the integration process—
the signing of the Single Eu ro pean Act (SEA), which established the goal of completing
a single market by the end of 1992. Achieving this goal meant a complicated pro cess of
removing the remaining physical, fiscal, and technical barriers to trade; harmonizing
national standards of health; varying levels of taxation; and eliminating the barriers to
movement of peoples. The pro cess also addressed new environmental and technological
issues. Three thousand specific mea sures were needed to complete the single market.
Even before that pro cess was completed, the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992.
The Eu ro pean Community became the EU. Members committed themselves not only
to an economic union but also to a po liti cal one, including the establishment of com
mon foreign and defense policies, a single currency, and a regional central bank. Five
years later, in 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty was signed, making some changes to the
previous treaties, including granting more power to the Eu ro pean Parliament but gen
erally putting more emphasis on the rights of individuals, citizenship, justice, and
home affairs.
The increased power of the EU has not been without its opponents. As several
national votes have illustrated, while the Eu ro pean public generally supports the idea
of economic and po liti cal cooperation, it also fears a diminution of national sover
eignty and is reluctant to surrender demo cratic rights by placing more power in the
hands of bureaucrats and other nonelected elites. The debate over the proposed Eu ro
pean Constitution brought that issue to a head. Pushed forward by elites, the Eu ro pean
Constitution was signed by the heads of state in 2004, only to be rejected in two
national referendums a year later. In its stead, in 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon replaced
the Constitution. This treaty is another attempt to enhance the efficacy of the EU by
creating the offices of president of the Eu ro pean Council and a High Representative
for Foreign Affairs who leads a more united policy, and increasing the use of qualified
majority voting in place of una nim i ty. The treaty is also aimed at improving the
demo cratic legitimacy of the EU by increasing the authority of the Eu ro pean Parlia
ment. The treaty became law on December 1, 2009 (see Table 7.5).
Structure
Table 7.6 provides the basic information about the EU’s decision making bodies,
membership, voting, and responsibilities. Just as power has shifted among the UN
organs, so, too, has power shifted in the EU. Initially, power resided in the Eu ro pean
Commission, which represents the interests of the community as a whole. Although
each state is entitled to one member, Commission members, who are not national
representatives, must be impartial. Each is responsible for a par tic u lar policy area,
known as a directorate general, which, in turn, is divided into directorates that cover
specific parts of that policy area. For much of its history, the EU Commission has