The Treaty of Amsterdam. Challenges and solutions

Summary:

This publication is a documentary instrument drawn up by the General Secretariat of the Council containing a brief descriptive summary of the content of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

Further information:

The Treaty of Amsterdam revising the Treaties on which the European Union is founded is the product of the work undertaken by the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) from March 1996 to June 1997. The IGC was the formal mechanism for revising the Treaties, which are the constitutional texts of the European Union, involving negotiations between the 15 governments of the Member States which belong to the Union.

The scope of the Conference's work was set out by successive European Council summit meetings, with the aim of providing the Union with the means to respond to the challenges which confront it now and in the years ahead. A thorough analysis of these challenges was undertaken in preparation for the Conference by a reflection group which drew up a suggested annotated agenda for the Conference.

The IGC formally began its work at the European Council summit meeting in Turin on 29 March 1996. The Conference's work received important impetus from the summits held in 1996 and 1997 in Florence, Dublin and Noordwijk, and concluded its work at the Amsterdam European Council on 18 June 1997.