From Maastricht to Amsterdam: Was it Worth the Journey for CFSP?

[From the Introduction]. As in 1991, the question of the further development of Europe’s foreign policy capacities has once again been high on the agenda of the 1996-1997 Intergovernmental Conference. The high expectations of 1991 following the transformation in Maastricht of European Political Cooperation (EPC) into CFSP had not been fulfilled and following Europe’s poor performance in the Yugoslavian crisis, European citizens did not hide their disappointment. They have increasingly seen the European Union as a paper tiger incapable of acting and not able to take care of its own security. Whether the amendments introduced in Amsterdam will be able to change that image, remains however very much the question