The European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy and the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference

[From the Introduction]. The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) was established by the Maastricht Treaty to form the Second Pillar of the European Union (EU). It is an upgraded version of European Political Cooperation (EPC), which developed gradually in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite receiving a treaty basis by way of the 1986 Single European Act, EPC remained a loose form of cooperation between Member States in the field of foreign policy. Political integration has proved to be slower and harder to achieve; foreign, security and defence policies are very sensitive sectors and Member States are reluctant to surrender their sovereign rights to the European level. The creation of a common foreign and security policy was therefore seen as a step forward, in line with integration in the economic fields