The German Council Presidency III: From Road Map to Mandate

Abstract

In producing on 14 June 2007 its report on Pursuing the Treaty Reform Process, the German Council Presidency had fulfilled the task set for it a year previously by the European Council. However, agreement still had to be reached on its proposal for a new ‘Reform Treaty’ amending the TEC and TEU and for the ‘rapid convening’ of an IGC to negotiate it. As the report acknowledged there were a range of issues on which further discussion was needed. There was also the matter, not mentioned in the report, of the Polish government’s opposition to the introduction of double majority voting. Moreover, there was no sign as yet of the ‘precise and comprehensive’ mandate proposed in the report. Evidently the work of the German Council Presidency was not over.