The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in 1952 to create a common European market in coal, iron ore, scrap and steel and marked the first attempt to forge a common market within Europe. Fraught with economic and political difficulties it did record some significant achievements and its successes and failures helped create the shape that European integration was to take in the second half of the 20th century.

This book outlines the content of the main treaties that form the 'constitutional' basis of the European Union and analyses changes in these over time. The EU has expanded its policy scope and taken in many more members transferring powers to common supranational institutions in a way seen nowhere else in the world.