2. Information
The Single European Act (SEA) was the
first major revision of the 1957 Treaty
or Rome.
The Act set the European Community an objective
of establishing a Single market by 31 December
1992, and codified European Political
Cooperation, the forerunner of the European
Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy.
It was signed at Luxembourg on 17 February 1986, and
at The Hague on 28 February 1986. It came into
effect on 1 July 1987, under the Delors Commission.

3. The SEA's signing grew from the discontent
among European Community members in the
1980s about the de facto lack of free trade
among them.
Leaders from business and politics wanted
to harmonise laws among countries and
resolve policy discrepancies.
The Treaty was drafted with the aim of
implementing parts of the Dooge report on
institutional reform of the Community and
the European Commission's white paper on
reforming the Common Market.
The resultant treaty aimed to create a
"Single Market" in the Community by
1992, and as a means of achieving this
adopted a more collaborative legislative
process, later known as thecooperation

4. Under the procedure the Council could, with the support
of Parliament and acting on a proposal by the
Commission, adopt a legislative proposal by a qualified
majority, but the Council could also overrule a
rejection of a proposed law by the Parliament by
adopting a proposal unanimousl y.
The SEA was signed on the basis of a political agreement
reached at the European Council held in Luxembourg on 3
December 1985.

5. Overvie
w
A core element of the SEA was to create a Single
Market within the European Community by 1992, a date by
which, it was hoped, the legislative reforms seen
necessary would have been completed.
In order to make this objective possible the
SEA reformed the legislative process by
introducing the Cooperation procedure and
by extending Qualified Majority Voting to
new areas. Measures were taken to shorten
the legislative process. The SEA intended to
remove barriers and to increase
harmonisation and competitiveness among
its countries.

6. Signing and ratification
The signing and ratification of the Single
European Act were not without incident. Two
member states, Denmark and Ireland, submitted
the treaty to a popular vote.
The Danish parliament rejected the Single
Act in January 1986 after an opposition
motion calling for the then unsigned
document to be renegotiated was passed by
80 votes to 75.
The Danish government, who supported the
treaty, decided to hold a national, non-
binding referendum on the issue in order to
overcome the treaty's rejection by the
Danish parliament.
This referendum was duly held on 27
February 1986 and approved by the Danish
people by 56.2% voting in favour to 43.8%
against on a turnout of 75.4%.
Denmark signed the Single Act the

7. Whilst the Danish opposition opposed
the treaty because they said it would
increase the powers of the European
Parliament, the Italian government
delayed in signing for the opposite
concern: that, in their opinion, it would
not give the European Parliament
enough power.
The other nine member
states signed the Single
Act eleven days earlier
in Luxembourg;the earlier
date having been originally
intended as display of unity
within the Community
regarding the SEA.