Negotiating the Amsterdam Treaty

Abstract

In the early hours of 18 June 1997 the European Council of Amsterdam concluded the 1996–97 IGC. This chapter will focus on the negotiations that led to the institutionalisation of flexible integration. Although the notion of flexibility is not new to the Union, the Amsterdam Treaty provides the first institutionalisation of the concept of flexibility as a basic principle in the treaties. What was the political context in which the flexibility debate was launched? Why did flexibility emerge on the IGC agenda and what were the underlying issues? Who were the main actors influencing the flexibility debate? What were the positions of the Member States and why did they adopt these positions? In order to examine the Amsterdam negotiations on flexibility, this chapter is divided into three parts:

• 1. The agenda-setting stage: from Corfu (June 1994) to Turin (March 1996);

• 2. The decision-shaping stage: from Turin to Dublin (December 1996);

• 3. The decision-shaping stage: from Turin to Dublin (December 1996);

Few negotiations of IGC calibre take place in a political vacuum. The early 1996–97 IGC debate on flexibility was influenced by a set of external events that forced flexibility on to the agenda. As argued before, debates on flexibility in the EU context emerge for five key reasons: uncertainty about participation in economic and monetary union, a desire by certain Member States to develop the defence dimension of the Union, a willingness to improve the work relating to justice and home affairs, the need to accommodate enlargement and a desire to bypass awkward Member States.