Upon its signing in 1992, the Treaty on European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, provided the framework for the multinational polity called the European Union (EU). The treaty was a pivotal effort by the European nations to unify politically so as to increase the region’s economic integration and establish joint policies on the environment, defense, citizenship, justice, health care, transportation, and the like. The Treaty on European Union called for the creation of a single currency, originally the European Currency Unit, which was later reborn as the euro, and for the establishment of a central bank that would coordinate monetary policies among the member nations. By eliminating tariffs on goods imported from one EU country to another and by relaxing border and immigration policies, the treaty—in line with its predecessor treaties—made Europeans freer to work, live, study, travel, and purchase goods and services in any of the EU’s member states.