EU agenda: the Amsterdam Treaty reforms.

• Author: Holland, Martin

Commencing in this issue, the EU Agenda will be a regular feature article focusing on important contemporary developments in the European Union. In this opening article, Martin Holland examines the Treaty reforms agreed to at the June Amsterdam inter-governmental conference.

The only way to reform the treaties or European Union `constitution' is to convene an inter-governmental conference(IGC). Reform has been a constant theme of the past decade.

Both the 1987 Single European Act and the 1993 Maastricht Treaty on European Union had significant effects (creating the European Single Market and Economic and Monetary Union respectively). Typically, such reforms are slow, with negotiation and final ratification taking several years. The recent IGC was launched in March 1996, concluded at the end of June 1997, and the Treaty now has to be ratified by all fifteen member states -- a process that will take until the end of 1997 at the earliest.

Why was further reform necessary? First, the Maastricht Treaty required an IGC to be held within five years: and second, reform has become a precondition for future enlargement to the East. However, public disquiet and changing political agendas meant that the Amsterdam Treaty was never likely to be as ambitious or radical as its predecessor -- particularly since any changes have to be unanimously approved by the Fifteen. Consequently, the reforms were incremental rather than fundamental. Most importantly, the conditions and criteria for Monetary Union were not on the IGC agenda.

The reforms built on the framework created at Maastricht. The most significant policy initiative towards deeper integration was in Justice and Home Affairs, the so-called `third pillar' of the Union. Common policies are to be introduced on asylum, immigration and visas, and the existing Schengen agreement on frontier controls is to be incorporated into the European Union. However, the `reluctant' member states of Denmark and Britain were again given specific exemptions. Thus the principle of a multi-speed or `variable geometry' European Union first introduced in the Maastricht Treaty was further extended in Amsterdam.

Perhaps the greatest policy disappointment was the failure to extend Europe's fledgling Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Bold Franco-German initiatives to create a high- profile Mr/Ms CFSP (to finally answer...