ABSTRACT
The Union Treaty declares that it establishes a European Union ‘founded on the European Communities, supplemented by the policies and forms of cooperation established by this Treaty’.2 The Union (Maastricht) Treaty significantly amended these treaties and placed them within a new structure sometimes described as three pillars, under a common roof. The ‘roof’ created by the Union Treaty is found in its Title I and sets out common provisions for the three pillars. It creates the European Union which deals with the matters that come under the three ‘pillars’. The first pillar consists of the European Communities which already existed at the time of the signing of the Union Treaty on 7 February 1992.
