The K-Zone: European Community

This term has a rather convoluted set of meanings. Strictly speaking, it is the name that the TreatyOnEuropeanUnion introduces to replace the term EuropeanEconomicCommunity (EEC). This change was intended to reflect the fact that the supranational competence of the EEC was to be extended to matters other than the economic. However, `European Community' is also used as a contracted form of the formal EuropeanCommunities, which comprise the EEC, the ECSC, and Euratom. In practice, the ECSC has now expired, and Euratom was only of limited importance by the time the EU was created. Thus the distinction between the `European Communities', the `European Communities', and the `European Economic Community' may be moot.

EULaw