Thirty years ago, Maastricht Treaty was signed by the then twelve members of the European Community. The Treaty created today’s ‘European Union’ and represented the biggest single transformative text on European integration since the Treaty of Rome in 1958. It provided for a single currency, a common foreign and security policy, closer cooperation in justice and home affairs, and institutional reforms. Now, with 14 new members having joined and one having left, what lessons are to be drawn for the EU from the ideals and instruments of this seminal moment? What went right and what went wrong? 

Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory.

Piers Ludlow is Head of LSE's Department of International History and also a teaching Professor in the department. He was previously a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford until he joined LSE in 1998. Professor Ludlow’s main research interests lie in the history of Western Europe since 1945, in particular the historical roots of the integration process and the development of the EU. 

Helen Wallace is a political scientist whose research has focused on the politics of European integration. She has held appointments at LSE, European University Institute, Florence Sussex European Institute, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the College of Europe. She was Director of the ESRC "One Europe or Several?" Programme. She became a Fellow of the British Academy in 2000, was Chair of the Political Studies Section and then its Foreign Secretary (2011 to 2015).

Yaprak Gürsoy is the Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at LSE. Prior to joining the European Institute, she was a Senior Lecturer and the Undergraduate Programme Director of Politics and International Relations at Aston University. She was also a Senior Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University and an Associate Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.

The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

This year the LSE European Institute is celebrating its 30th Anniversary. The European Institute has been at the forefront of study and research on Europe for three decades and will be running a series of special events to mark the occasion. 

Twitter hashtag for this event: #LSEEI30