Maastricht is a city in the south of the Netherlands, close to Belgium and Germany. English speakers mostly meet the name because European leaders met there in 1991 and, in 1992, signed the Maastricht Treaty. That agreement pushed the countries of the European Community — soon called the European Union — toward closer politics and closer money, including a plan for a single currency, which became the euro. In news and in history class, “Maastricht” often means that treaty, not only the town. The name came into English from Dutch Maastricht, and further back from Latin Mosae Trāiectum, “the crossing of the Mosa” — the river English calls the Meuse. That origin is about a river crossing; the famous treaty is a much later story that happened to be signed in the same place.