European integration for greater transparency and trust among themselves. This transfer of national powers to a "Community" to be exercised by its Commission was paralleled under the 1957 Treaty of Rome establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (or Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) in Brussels. In 1967, the Merger Treaty (or Brussels Treaty) combine the institutions of the ECSC and Euratom into that of the EEC. They already shared a Parliamentary Assembly and Courts. Collectively they were known as the European Communities. In 1987, the Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome that
Special member state territories and the European Union lodged by the United Kingdom with the EEC in 1982, Gibraltarians were to be counted as British nationals for the purposes of Community law. This was notwithstanding that they were not, at the time, British citizens, but were British Overseas Territories citizens with the right to be registered as British citizens. As such, Gibraltarians have enjoyed European Community treaty rights since UK's accession to the European Community, and subsequently European Union citizenship since the Maastricht Treaty. It was not until 21 May 2002 when Gibraltarians who did not apply for British citizenship were automatically granted British citizenship while still retaining