Single European Act

The Act was signed in February 1986 by all member governments of what was then the European Community (EC, now European Union or EU) and implemented in 1987. The Act amended the Treaty of Rome and related treaties to give institutional expression to the Union's Single Market Programme (SMP) and to reform decision-making processes.

While more ambitious integration proposals had met with objections from key member states, a consensus developed around the idea of returning to the original functionalist notion of step-by-step integration through the market and economic policy. As a result, the Act specifically recognized the SMP as a Community goal by 31 December 1992. First the Single European Act streamlined European Council decision-making procedures: majority voting was introduced on all matters linked to implementation of the huge volume of legislation related to the Single Market, the aim of which was to remove all barriers to the circulation of labour, capital, goods, and services within the EC. Second, the role of the European Parliament was strengthened through the ‘cooperation’ and ‘assent’ procedures. Third, there was a reorganization of the machinery for foreign policy cooperation among member governments (although foreign policy none the less remained outside the legal framework of the Union until the Treaty of Maastricht was implemented in 1993).

— Geoffrey R. D. Underhill

The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome that formally established the single European market and the European Political Cooperation.

There was tremendous discontent among European Community members in the 1980s about the de facto lack of free trade between members. Leaders from the business and political worlds were eager to harmonize laws between countries and resolve policy discrepancies. A commission formed to analyze whether a common market was possible in Europe, and further, what steps would need to be taken to achieve that goal. The commission put forth the proposals that became the Single European Act.

The goal was to remove remaining barriers between countries, increase harmonization, thus increasing the competitiveness of European countries. It reformed/refined the operating procedures of the institutions (which by then had 12 members, rather than 6 as initially) and Qualified Majority Voting was extended to new areas. An aim of a single market by 1992 was set.

The act also formally introduced the concept of the European Political Cooperation which was the forerunner of the European Union's later Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The act was signed at Luxembourg on February 17, 1986, and at The Hague on February 28, 1986. It went into effect on July 1, 1987, under the Delors Commission.

Treaties, structure and history of the European Union

1951/1952	1957/1958	1965/1967	1986/1987	1992/1993	1997/1999	2001/2003	2007/2009 ?
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
	Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community)
	European Economic Community (EEC)			European Community (EC)
		...European Communities: ECSC, EEC (EC, 1993), Euratom		Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
					Police & Judicial Co-operation in Criminal matters (PJCC)
			European Political Cooperation (EPC)	Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
				E U R O P E A N   U N I O N   ( E U )
Treaty of Paris	Treaties of Rome	Merger Treaty	Single European Act	Treaty of Maastricht	Treaty of Amsterdam	Treaty of Nice	Reform Treaty
				"THREE PILLARS" - ECs (ECSC, EEC/EC, Euratom), CFSP, PJCC

External links

• Text of the Single European Act
• The History of the European Union - The Single European Act
• The Single European Act European Navigator

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