In the European Union, these are determined and guaranteed by the provisions of the Treaty of Rome and those of the European treaties. However, the treaties only deal with rights in terms of general principles and in specific, mainly economic, areas. A second source of citizens rights, again only in specific areas, has been the rulings of the European Court of Justice in the context of its interpretation of the treaties. These cases have been concerned primarily with the principle of equality between citizens within one Member State, especially for minority groups. In the 1980s the European Communities (EC) began to emphasize citizens rights as part of its promotion of awareness of, and loyalty to, the EC at the level of the individual. This was one of the objectives of the 1984 Committee for a Peoples Europe, but implementation of its proposals was slow. The Treaty on European Union attempted to expand the rights already enjoyed by individuals into a broader notion of citizenship. The Treaty of Amsterdam, which entered into force in 1999, continued to build on this idea, and focused further attention on the citizen's rights. The Treaty permits the Council of the European Union to take action, by unanimity, in cases of discrimination based on sex, race, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. EC Member States signing the Treaty also agreed to eliminate inequalities between men and women; to protect citizens against misuse of data held by EC institutions; and to maintain and establish cooperation in areas of public health, the environment and sustainability, and development and consumer protection. The Treaty of Amsterdam, moreover, incorporated the protocol on social policy (See: Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers) into the revised Treaty of Rome. At Nice, in December 2000, the rights of citizens were once again on the agenda with the proclamation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which contains a section dedicated to citizens rights