TEAM - an answer to a growing need to cooperate

The 1992 Maastricht Treaty was the first clear evidence of the euro-federalist project for a centralised EU Superstate. TEAM was formed loosely at an EU counter-summit in Edinburgh in 1992, as an answer to the growing need for increased cooperation amongst organisations in different countries that were opposed to the Maastricht Treaty and the single euro-currency.

This is shown in the name TEAM, which originally stands for “The European Anti-Maastricht Alliance”. But since the Maastricht Treaty is no longer so prominent, the name “The European Alliance of EU-critical Movements” is now mostly used.

In 1997 TEAM adopted a more formal structure. At a meeting in Copenhagen in March that year the organisations in the network adopted the TEAM Constitution and elected the first TEAM Board.

TEAM is a network of cooperating organisations in different European countries that are critical of EU developments. They help one another by keeping in contact and exchanging information on EU-related matters.

TEAM is opposed to the further centralisation of power and erosion of democracy which every new EU Treaty since 1992 has resulted in - Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice. A new grand constitutional Treaty has been proposed for the EU in 2004, which promised further centralisation, and has been kindly declined by voters of France and Netherlands.

Mutual support between TEAM-members played an important role in the successful referendum campaigns against the Nice Treaty in Ireland and the euro-referendums in Denmark and Sweden.

We expect TEAM will offer similar service also in the year 2008.