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Europe
This edited collection examines the negotiations and conclusions of the 1996/97 Intergovernmental Conferences, the constitutional and institutional reforms in the Amsterdam treaty and the reforms to major policies such as social policy, foreign and security policy, and justice and home affairs. The contributors have sought to analyse how the provisions of the treaty could best be applied to secure their intended outcomes in an effective and legitimate manner. Along the way, contributors have spent more or less time highlighting the inadequacies of the treaty’s provisions.
It is an interesting collection of papers from academics, politicians and diplomats, a number of whom were centrally involved in the negotiations leading to the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam. Some of the personal insights into the treaty deliberations are intriguing in a ‘fly on the wall’ sort of way. Dehousse of the Belgian delegation is quite candid in his remarks about, for example, the British Conservative government’s positioning. Saryusz-Wolski of the Polish delegation bemoans the missed opportunity of Amsterdam in a tone somewhat at odds with the more optimistic remarks in Helmut Kohl’s introduction to the book, where the former German Chancellor praised Amsterdam as opening the way for the expansion of the EU.
Many contributions uncover a sense of uncertainty, confusion and conflict per-meating the deliberations and final agreements on the Treaty of Amsterdam, owing, in part at least, to nation-state sensitivities. Monar concludes that Amsterdam is a milestone, but further progress depends on ‘⋯ whether the member states which remain the masters of the treaties can agree at least on some common answers ⋯’ (p. 333). Perhaps it is worth remembering that the EU is a bold venture that seeks to create, through deliberation and negotiation, a new form of political community. Doubt, resistance and uncertainty seem bound to pervade any such endeavour.
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