death in 1969 changed the situation in favor of Britain. At this stage three nations Denmark, Ireland and Britain applied for the membership of ECM. In March 1970 the Council of EC approved the entry of these countries into ECM. Later on the treaties of accession signed on January 22, 1972 in Brussels granted membership to Britain, Denmark and Ireland, thus raising the membership of ECM from six to nine. The inclusion of these three nations made the ECM the largest trading power of the world because their entry raised the population to 260 million, farming land to 95 million hectares and the GNP to 654000 million dollars. Later on Greece in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986 joined the ECM. Thus the total number of the members of common market became twelve.The Maastricht Treaty (1991): The ECM went a step further in December 1991 when the heads of its twelve member states held a conference in Maastricht (Netherlands) and signed a treaty to forge a complete political and financial unity among European nations. They agreed to achieve unity like the United States of America by creating the European Political Union (EPU), Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and European Commission (EC). Through EPU the signatories wanted to adopt a common defense and foreign policy. Similarly the EMU aimed at establishing a central bank and a joint currency by 1999. The European Commission was to be formed in order to harmonize sectors of health, education and agriculture.European Union (EU): After the Maastricht Treaty (1991) the ECM got transformed into European Union or European Community because its 12 members states were brought politically and financially closer through common fiscal policy; a common central bank, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and proposed single currency. Later the strength of European Union increased to 15 when Austria, Sweden and Finland too entered its fold as regular members. The European Union is the collective name of the E...
