An organization of Western European countries, which came into being in 1967 when the executive bodies of the European Economic Community (Common Market or EEC), European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), and European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), merged. Committed to economic and political integration as envisaged by the Treaties of Rome, in 1993 it was absorbed into the European Union. It was abolished in 2009 by the Lisbon Treaty.