Introduction: On the Study of EU Treaties and Treaty Reforms

Abstract

This book deals with the study of EU treaty making and treaty reforms, which have constituted important elements in the history of European integration. Whether the original treaties, which formed the first European Communities in the 1950s, or later reform treaties, they have mostly been negotiated by states in what has become known as intergovernmental conferences (IGCs). The founding treaties formalised the use of IGCs in treaty reforms, and they started becoming more important and formalised from the negotiation of the Single European Act (SEA) in the mid-1980s.