· Outline the main provisions of the Maastricht Treaty.
             The treaty of Maastricht was held at the end of '91 and set out to amend the Treaty of Rome, so to strengthen the political and economic ties between the member states of the European Community. It did this by changing the following aspects of the European Community.
             The Treaty changed the name of the European Community to the European Union. With this the influence of the EU was extended beyond purely trade and economic issues. By moving the powers beyond what the European Community was created for, the name was altered to the European Union so to show this change.
             A timetable was drawn up for the development of the European Monetary Union. The treaty envisaged the abolishment of all of the national currencies of the member states and replacing them with a single currency for the EU called the European Currency Unit, the ECU, now known as the Euro. The treaty also discussed the formation of a European central bank with the power to affect the interest rate of the whole of the EU.
             The treaty contained the provision of the Social Chapter which gave force to the Social Charter of '89. The aim was to balance all of the social rights of the workforces of the member states so that competition between the member states would not become too fruitful. The provision intended to establish an EU – wide minimum wage and enforce certain rights for all workforces.
             The Maastricht Treaty also set out to extend the powers of the European Parliament.
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