Maastricht Treaty Signed: Birth of the European Union

Representatives of twelve European nations signed the Maastricht Treaty on February 7, 1992, transforming the European Economic Community into the European Union and committing members to a shared currency, a common foreign and security policy, and cooperation on justice and home affairs. The treaty introduced European citizenship for the first time, granting all nationals of member states the right to live, work, and vote in any EU country. The most controversial provision was the convergence criteria for the single currency, which required member states to limit government debt, inflation, and interest rates to specified thresholds before joining. Britain and Denmark negotiated opt-outs from the euro. The French ratified the treaty by a razor-thin margin of 51 percent in a referendum that revealed deep public skepticism. The Maastricht Treaty created the legal and institutional framework that would grow from twelve members to twenty-seven and bind 450 million people into the world's largest single market.