§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Lord Privy Seal when and why the Foreign Office started referring to the European Economic Community as the "European Community" in replies to parliamentary questions; and whether this has any implications for relations with other European States such as Austria, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
§ Sir Ian GilmourThere are legally three separate European Communities—the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community—founded on three separate Treaties: The Merger Treaty of 1965 created a Commission of the European Communities and a Council of the European Communities (the Assembly or Parliament having become common to the three Communities in 1957) but the Communities themselves were not merged. All these terms are still used in formal, legal acts.
However, the Council has formally endorsed the use of the term "the European Community" for most other purposes and the practice was adopted by Her Majesty's Government at the beginning of last year.
It has no inplications for relations with other European States which are not members of the Community.