The Intergovernmental Conference On Political Union

The radical changes taking place in the international scene during the late 1980s have presented the European Communities with important new challenges. The twelve Member States agreed that the only way to respond effectively to this new situation was to speed up the European integration process, and in December 1990 two Intergovernmental Conferences were inaugurated, focusing respectively on the development of an Economic and Monetary Union and a Political Union. It was the difficult task of the Luxembourg and Dutch Presidencies to channel the often very diverging positions of the different actors in the process into one coherent set of amendments to the Treaties forming the European Communities. This publication examines the positions which the different Member States, the Commission and the European Parliament have been defending in the Intergovernmental Conference on Political Union and more particularly with regard to one of the most sensitive topics under discussion, namely the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The introduction places the debate on the development of a Political Union and a CFSP in an historical perspective and gives an overview of the progression of the negotiations. The concluding chapter presents a general framework for better understanding of the course and results of the negotiations, and a critical evaluation of the outcome. The annexes reproduce the main proposals on the development of a CFSP submitted to the Conference.

The contributors, representing major European Community institutions and member states, offer their assessments of the political and institutional issues influencing the formation of a common foreign and security policy for the 12 member states. Representatives of non-EC countries (particularly the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan) provi

This book provides a detailed examination of the complex negotiation processes surrounding intergovernmental conferences in the European Union. Since the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and its ‘appendix’, the Treaty of Nice in 2002, any reform of the treaty framework of the European Union seems to be doomed to fail, evidenced by the decline of the Constitutional Treaty and by the current fate of the Lisbon treaty. By presenting an extensive quantitative study of the Intergovernmental Conference of 1996/7 prior to the Treaty of Amsterdam, the authors argue that these negotiations reveal the major challenges of European integration. Drawing on advanced statistical methods, they contend that multi-level negotiations require an appropriate coordination of informal administrative networks and the empowerment of administrative leadership, with these factors significantly shaping the dynamics and outcomes of negotiations. Through these findings, this book lays down the foundation for future evidence-based evaluations of negotiations and implementation studies, and delivers new insights on decision-making within the European Union. European Union Intergovernmental Conferences will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, sociology, administrative science, business and management studies, international law and European law.

This book seeks to explain decisions in the European Union using a revised neofunctionalist framework.

Describes and analyses the economic, cultural and political context of the creation of the European Community and discusses possible developments in the future. Covers the period from 1950 to 1992.

Scholars of EC studies and integration theory survey the importance of the Treaty in furthering the aims of European Union, looking at policies, process and institutions and supplying political context.

Europe must change to face the critical challenges ahead. This most distinguished and experienced group of key European opinion-formers offer a sharp critique of existing institutions and a ten-point plan for a fulfilment of the pro-European vision. An institutional structure initially conceived for a community of six must be radically transformed to serve a potential union of some thirty members. The transition to economic and monetary union, the legitimacy crisis of European institutions are among the crucial issues discussed. Jacques Delors assesses the reform proposals in his foreword.