section_path: History/Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice (1993 – 2004)
section_name: Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice (1993 – 2004)
paragraph_text: Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice (1993 – 2004)
  
  The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty —whose main architects were Horst Köhler, Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand —came into force on 1 November 1993. The treaty also gave the name European Community to the EEC, even if it was referred to as such before the treaty. With further enlargement planned to include the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Cyprus and Malta, the Copenhagen criteria for candidate members to join the EU were agreed upon in June 1993. The expansion of the EU introduced a new level of complexity and discord. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU.
  
  In 2002, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states. Since then, the eurozone has increased to encompass 20 countries. The euro currency became the second-largest reserve currency in the world. In 2004, the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the union.