European Coal and Steel Community in the context of "Messina Conference"

European Union law is a system of supranational laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Originally referred to as Community law, it has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote peace, social justice, a social market economy with full employment, and environmental protection. The Treaties of the European Union agreed to by member states form its constitutional structure. EU law is interpreted by, and EU case law is created by, the judicial branch, known collectively as the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Legal Acts of the EU are created by a variety of EU legislative procedures involving the popularly elected European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (which represents member governments), the European Commission (a cabinet which is elected jointly by the Council and Parliament) and sometimes the European Council (composed of heads of state). Only the Commission has the right to propose legislation.

The European Union–Turkey Customs Union is a trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Turkey. The agreement came into effect on 31 December 1995, following a 6 March 1995 decision of the European Community–Turkey Association Council to implement a customs union (Turkish: Gümrük Birliği) between the two parties. Goods may travel between the two entities without any customs restrictions. The Customs Union does not cover essential economic areas such as agriculture (to which bilateral trade concessions apply), services or public procurement.

In 1996, a free trade area was established between Turkey and the European Union for products covered by the European Coal and Steel Community. Decision 1/98 of the Association Council covers trade in agricultural products.

The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, aiming to foster economic integration among its member states. It was subsequently renamed the European Community (EC) upon becoming integrated into the first pillar of the newly formed European Union (EU) in 1993. In the popular language, the singular European Community was sometimes inaccurately used in the wider sense of the plural European Communities, in spite of the latter designation covering all the three constituent entities of the first pillar. The EEC was also known as the European Common Market (ECM) in the English-speaking countries, and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was officially renamed as such in 1993. In 2009, the EC formally ceased to exist and its institutions were directly absorbed by the EU. This made the Union the formal successor institution of the Community.

The Community's initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including a common market and customs union, among its six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. It gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty (Treaty of Brussels). In 1993, a complete single market was achieved, known as the internal market, which allowed for the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people within the EEC. In 1994 the internal market was formalised by the EEA agreement. This agreement also extended the internal market to include most of the member states of the European Free Trade Association, forming the European Economic Area, which encompasses 15 countries.

The Inner Six (also known as the Six or the Six founders) are the six founding member states of the European Union, namely Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. They were the original members of the European Communities, which were later succeeded by the European Union. Named for their location on a map of western Europe, the Inner Six contrasted with the "Outer Seven", which pursued a free-trade system.

A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.

When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community) first met in 1952, its members were directly appointed by the governments of member states from among those already sitting in their own national parliaments. Since 1979, however, MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage every five years. Each member state establishes its own method for electing MEPs – and in some states this has changed over time – but the system chosen must be a form of proportional representation. Some member states elect their MEPs to represent a single national constituency; other states apportion seats to sub-national regions for election.

The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or EURATOM) is an international organization established by the Euratom Treaty of 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nuclear energy and distributing it to its member states while selling the surplus to non-member states. Having become one of the three European Communities alongside the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community following the merger of their executive bodies in 1967, the Euratom is de facto under the authority of the European Union (EU) but remains de jure a separate organization.

It is legally distinct from the European Union although it has the same membership, and is governed by many of the EU's institutions; but it is the only remaining community organization that is independent of the EU and therefore outside the regulatory control of the European Parliament. Over the years its scope has been increased to cover a variety of areas associated with nuclear power and ionising radiation as diverse as safeguarding of nuclear materials, radiation protection, coordinating EU members' nuclear research programmes for peaceful purposes, and construction of the International Fusion Reactor.

The Treaty of Paris (formally the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community) was signed on 18 April 1951 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which subsequently became part of the European Union. The treaty came into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002, exactly fifty years after it came into effect.

The treaty was intended to bring diplomatic and economic stability in western Europe after the Second World War. Some of the main enemies during the war were now sharing production of coal and steel, the key resources which previously had been central to the war effort.