Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

French term often translated as the “patrimony” gradually accumulated since the 1950s by the European Community (EC), and latterly the European Union (EU). It embraces the various international compacts, legal rulings, and other agreements about principles and policies that are deemed fundamentally binding on states participating in european integration . Because such matters have become increasingly complex and interconnected since the rome treaties of 1957, the constantly developing acquis reflects the qualitative “deepening” of EC/EU structures. Insofar as it has also expressed at any given time the unnegotiable core of established obligations that new applicants must accept, the concept is equally central to the “widening” that began in 1973 when the founding states of the so-called six admitted the first additional members. ... log in or subscribe to read full text