n the internal structure of the European integration process, such as an institutionalized form of political cooperation and the deadline for the creation of the internal market (1 January 1992). Other changes brought about by the SEA include the possibility to use majority voting in some fields of policy making, and the formation of the First Instance Court. The next step in European Integration was the Treaty on the European Union. The Treaty of Maastricht has entered into force in 1993 and established the European Union with a structure of three pillars; The existing treaties (EEC, ECSC, EURATOM) constitute the first pillar for the EU. The legal and institutional framework is included into the pillar that most resembles the supra-national characteristics of EU, a point I shall return to. The second pillar established by The Treaty of Maastricht is the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is to ensure that the European Union appears as one global political actor in the future. The third pillar is the Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (PCJ) will help to develop an effective legal control over the territory of the European Union. The unity between these pillars and the member states themselves is created through a single institutional framework that includes the existing laws, treaties and principles of European law and naturally the Euro, the single European currency that has been introduced by the Treaty of the European Union and will be in effect from 1 January 2002. In order to be able to react to the original statement above, one has to distinguish between an international organization with an intergovernmental character and an international organization with a supranational character. The European Union is often regarded as an intergovernmental organization; often it is referred to as a supra-national organization. The intergovernmental character of the European Union can be argued through various methods...
