Treaty of Nice Explained

The Treaty of Nice is an EU treaty which was signed in Nice, France, and thus how the Treaty of Nice received its name. The Treaty of Nice is an important EU treaty, as it amended the original Treaty on European Union and the Treaty of Rome so as to allow for the European Union to expand westward into the other parts of Europe. The Treaty of Nice did so by allowing for the European Parliament, which is the primary legislative body of the European Union, to be expanded to 732 total seats. This was a revision of a prior EU treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam, which had been a similar attempt to provide for westward expansion of the EU.

The Treaty of Nice also had several other important provisions which changed and altered the European Union. For example, the Treaty of Nice established a new set of courts within the judicial system of the European Union as a whole. The courts established by this EU treaty would thus stand below the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Insurance, which were two of the highest courts in the EU and would be specifically focused on special areas of law.

The Treaty of Nice was signed in February 2001, and despite being successful and important in a number of its intended purposes, it was ultimately unsuccessful in one: reducing the complexity of the European Union’s institutions. As such, the European Union established the European Convention in 2004 to remedy this situation.

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