Dealing with Europe: Britain and the Negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty

This book examines the negotiations that led to agreement at the December 1991 Maastricht European Council, which in turn mapped the future progress of the European Community (EC), later renamed the European Union (EU). Perceived as a negotiating success, hailed even as ‘Game, Set and Match’ for Britain, the text emanated from the arduous process which had taken place under the aegis of the 1990-91 intergovernmental conferences on Economic and Monetary Union and European Political Union. These negotiations differed in complexity from the 1985 conference that led to the Single European Act. The former comprised distinct but related talks on monetary union and political union, while the latter was a united negotiation. Discussion in 1985 fell within a single Presidency, that of Luxembourg; negotiations took place between October and November and agreement was reached on 2-3 December. In contrast, the 1990-91 intergovernmental conference (IGC) lasted 12 months and spanned three Presidencies: Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (in essence the latter two only). Furthermore, whereas the 1985 IGC was based on a Commission text, during 1990-91 the Commission proposal did not form the basis of political union discussions, although it did on monetary union. The political union debates were rather based on Member States’ texts, advanced individually or via alliances, supplemented with Presidency documents. The broader subject matter of the 1990-91 IGC combined with the longer negotiating process meant there were different degrees of involvement by the Member States and institutional actors (Commission and European Parliament) during each conference