The economic and political organisation formed in 1967 by merging the European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom. It developed common policies including agriculture, and evolved into the European Union in 1993. Its food law heritage underpins modern EU food regulation. Its Common Agricultural Policy, launched in 1962, reshaped European food production through price supports and later direct payments, with lasting effects on dairy, cereal and meat sectors. Food law harmonisation began here too — directives on additives, labelling and materials in contact with food that still structure EU rules today.