The Maastricht Treaty created the legal framework for the European Union and planned a single European currency.
Signed on February 7, 1992, in Maastricht, Netherlands, the Treaty on European Union entered into force on November 1, 1993. It established the European Union’s three-pillar structure at the time and expanded cooperation beyond the earlier European Communities, including common foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs.
The treaty also laid out the path toward economic and monetary union. It set convergence criteria concerning inflation, government finances, exchange-rate stability, and long-term interest rates. These conditions were intended to encourage fiscal and monetary discipline before countries adopted the euro.
The euro was introduced for electronic and accounting purposes in 1999 and as notes and coins in 2002. The Maastricht Treaty is sometimes confused with the Treaty of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community in 1957, or the Lisbon Treaty, which later amended the EU’s institutional rules.