Treaty of Rome in 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon renamed it the "Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union". The TFEU originated as the treaty establishing the European Economic Community (the EEC treaty), signed in Rome on 25 March 1957. On 7 February 1992, the Maastricht treaty, which led to the formation of the European Union, saw the EEC Treaty renamed as the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) and renumbered. The Maastricht reforms also saw the creation of the European Union's three pillar structure, of which the European Community was the major constituent part. Following the 2005 referenda, which saw the
European Communities EEC was to create a customs union and general economic co-operation. It later led to the creation of a European single market. The EEC became the European Community pillar of the EU, with the ECSC and EAEC continuing in a similar subordinate position, existing separately in a legal sense but governed by the institutions of the EU as if they were its own. The ECSC's treaty had a 50-year limit and thus expired in 2002, all its activities are now absorbed into the European Community. The EAEC had no such limit and thus continues to exist. Due to the sensitive