Documents

Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union)

MAH-strikht (the Dutch city of Maastricht)

Citation Formats

General Reference

Political Atlas. "Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union)." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/maastricht-treaty.

APA Style

Political Atlas. (n.d.). Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union). Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/maastricht-treaty

BibTeX

@misc{politicalatlas-maastricht-treaty-treaty-on-european-uni,
  author = {Political Atlas},
  title = {Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/maastricht-treaty},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The treaty that created the European Union, signed in Maastricht, Netherlands, on 7 February 1992 and entered into force on 1 November 1993, integrating its member states across trade, monetary policy and other shared areas of governance and building on European integration efforts dating back to the 1950s.

Facts

Year

1992 1

Key Provision

Signed on 7 February 1992 and entering into force in 1993, the Treaty on European Union transformed the European Community into the European Union, built on three pillars, the existing Community institutions alongside new intergovernmental cooperation on foreign and security policy and on justice and home affairs, created the status of Union citizenship held alongside national citizenship, and set the convergence criteria and timetable that led to Economic and Monetary Union and the euro. It marked a deliberate step from economic integration toward political union, pooling elements of member states' sovereignty in ways that remain debated in several member states to this day. 1

Dates

Signed

1992-02-07 1

Cross-Tradition Connections