The Emu Negotiations Before And After Maastricht

Economic and monetary union in the European Union represents a massive change for Europe and for the world. The Road to Maastricht identifies why the agreement was possible and how the agreement was made. The book examines the motives that inspired European political leaders, the strategies that they pursued, and the institutions that were used to achieve monetary union. Drawing on a wide range of sources and unprecedented research and interviews, the book combines careful political analysis with new information about the way in which European Monetary Union was negotiated. It delves into the complex forces at work in Europe, including the cross-national political interactions, to produce an authoritative account of the boldest and riskiest venture in the history of European integration.

Economic and monetary union in the European Union represents a massive change for Europe and for the world. The Road to Maastricht identifies why the agreement was possible and how the agreement was made. The book examines the motives that inspired European political leaders, the strategies that they pursued, and the institutions that were used to achieve monetary union. Drawing on a wide range of sources and unprecedented research and interviews, the book combines careful political analysis with new information about the way in which European Monetary Union was negotiated. It delves into the complex forces at work in Europe, including the cross-national political interactions, to produce an authoritative account of the boldest and riskiest venture in the history of European integration.

This book examines the British government's negotiation of the Treaty on European Union which took place between December 1990 and December 1991. On the basis of documentary and interview based evidence of leading participants from Britain and Europe, it offers a unique insight into the objectives and motivations of the British government. It analyses the various constraints and pressures that impinged on the British government and sets its successes and failures in the Maastricht negotiations in a broader context of British European policy.

Published in 1999. This book provides a detailed analysis of the positions and strategies adopted by Britain during the 1990-91 Intergovernmental Conference which concluded in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. The main focus is on the questions of British policy coordination and the factors which determined the government’s position during the negotiations on European Political Union and European Monetary Union. This is the first major study which reconstructs the mechanisms of British policy making and notes the internal and external factors which shaped the construction of the government’s position on the major points of the negotiations. The hypothesis of the book is that domestic politics, primarily through the Prime Minister’s aim to maintain the unity of the Conservative Party, was the determining factor in shaping government policy. This view is based upon micro-level empirical analysis undertaken through a methodological approach of historical interpretation.

The Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1992 and ratified in the following year, is widely seen as a landmark in the evolution of the European Union. It introduced into the treaty framework revolutionary new elements such as the co-decision procedure between the Council and the European Parliament, cooperation in the area of Justice and Home Affairs, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the "euro" as a single currency for the majority of the then member states. It also introduced the concept of European citizenship into the treaty, reflecting the rising expectations of both citizens and decision-makers in the European project, and upgraded the role of the European Council at the summit of the EU’s institutional structure. Twenty years later, each of these innovations remain of central importance for the process of European integration, while current developments provide a valuable opportunity to reflect on the historical decisions taken in Maastricht in order to assess their significance and examine the subsequent evolution of the Union. This volume brings together an international group of leading scholars in the field in order to provide such an assessment, with each article both looking back over the developments within each of these domains as well as looking ahead to the way in which the EU is positioned to address current challenges. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

The signature of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty was a major step in the development of the European Union (EU). It represented not only the key moment of the introduction of the single currency, but also the result of difficult negotiations during which important initial objectives fell by the wayside, notably the idea to accompany economic and monetary union (EMU) with stronger political integration. The financial and public debt crisis that started in 2008, as well as its later political fall-out, could hence be seen as the result of a political structure inadequate to foster economic and monetary integration. Therefore, a historical evaluation of the political context which led to this outcome of the 1991 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) seems appropriate.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 2,0, University of Bamberg (Lehrstuhl für Politikwissenschaft, insb. Internationale Beziehungen), course: European Integration, language: English, abstract: The topic of this term paper deals with the Maastricht Treaty which came into force in November 1993 and created the European Union. I will examine in particular the negotiations between the member states of the EU, which led to the ratification of the treaty. The reason for choosing this subject was on the one hand a presentation about the negotiations of the treaty and the integration theory which can explain best the results. I gave it within the scope of a seminar about European Integration during the summer term 2009. The Maastricht Treaty is, on the other hand, certainly a milestone of the European Integration and therefore an important and interesting topic to write about. The research question is the following: is the Maastricht treaty a result of rational state preferences? Therefore I will analyze the negotiations with the integration theory of Liberal Intergovernementalism (in the following abbreviated “LI”) because the approach of LI is far better suitable to examine such a question than, for example, the theory of Neofunctionalism. The term paper is divided in three parts: the first part is about the used integration theory, the LI. I will give a general explanation of the main features of this theory and about the theory that states are acting in a rational manner. The second section is the main part. This chapter has the focus on the negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty between the member states of the EG. The positions of three nations during these negotiations will be viewed: Germany, Great Britain and France. It is obviously that a consideration of all projects which were on the agenda of the negotiations would go beyond the scope of his work. Therefore I will focus my attention on the Economic and Monetary Union. Within this project the negotiating positions of the states mentioned above will be analyzed in regard to find out if the individual positions are the outcome of rational state preferences. The third and last part will be the conclusion. There I will give a summary of the results of the analysis undertaken in the main part and the research question will be answered.

The Maastricht Treaty on European Union brings about a number of improvements of the sort that will surely lead historians in the future to distinguish between the European Community «before» and «after» Maastricht. Yet, the Treaty also raises more questions than any previous reform of the Community system - questions concerning the interpretation and implementation of the Treaty, as well as its significance for future developments. In the contributions to this book a number of academic experts and practitioners from the Community and the Member States have sought to look beyond the controversial debate surrounding the ratification of the Treaty and evaluate the results of Maastricht in as objective a manner as possible. The contributions reflect a broad spectrum of different research approaches and opinions, but they all take into account the political constellation during the negotiations, the practical problems of implementing the Treaty and its potential for the future. The book contains contributions in English and in French. Le livre contient des contributions en français et en anglais.