Maastricht as Turning Point. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5 No. 17, August 2008

[From the Introduction] Fifteen years have passed since the Danish people rejected the Treaty on European Union (TEU), known also by the name of the city in the Netherlands where the European Council negotiated its final provisions, Maastricht. The text was, in my experience, a historical turning point that occurred in European integration as the Continent lost the framework orientation of bipolarity and the world lost the structural underpinnings of the Cold War. For this reason, it is essential to question the relevance of Maastricht in the present context. We must understand the genuine disconnect among system, state, and society in the dynamics the Treaty introduced. The original European Communities were organized to suppress those nationalist motives that led neighboring countries to conduct fratricidal wars. The European Union (EU) of the 21st century must contend increasingly with intra-state conflict beyond and near its borders as EU members and institutions define its role as a global actor