A regional organization created in 1958 providing for the gradual elimination of customs duties and other intraregional trade barriers, a common external tariff against other countries and gradual adoption of other integrating measures, including a Common Agricultural Policy and guarantees of free movement of labor and capital. Formerly called the European Community (EC), the organization became the European Union in January, 1994. Since 1967, common institutions, the EU Commission, the EU Council, the European Parliament and the Court …showed first 75 words of 4150 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4150 total…Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Bulgaria and Romania expect to follow a few years later and Turkey is also a candidate country. To ensure that the EU can continue functioning efficiently with 25 or more members, its decision-making system must be streamlined. That is why the Treaty of Nice lays down new rules governing the size of the EU institutions and the way they work. It came into force on 1 February 2003.