The European Union and the Contested Politics of ‘Ever Closer Union’: Approaches to Integration, State Interests and Treaty Reform since Maastricht

The 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union made major commitments to economic and monetary union as well as to political reform culminating in the objective of an ‘ever closer union’. Since Maastricht there have been a series of intergovernmental councils focused on building on these objectives. Discussions have led to the Amsterdam Treaty (1997), the Nice Treaty (2001), the failed constitutional treaty (2004), and the Lisbon Treaty (2007). The paper first clarifies the achievements that resulted in the 1992 Treaty on European Union; secondly, it explores the ‘community method’ approach, intrinsic to the reforms at Amsterdam and Nice; and, thirdly, it examines the attempt at a more ‘constitutional’ approach to completing European Union during the 2000s, and the problems that this has faced. The paper argues that whilst integration strategies to achieve ‘ever closer union’ have been shaped by the need to respond to perceived collective ‘European’ challenges, developments in practice have been influenced by the assertion of different ‘nation’ state interests and contested visions of what ‘ever closer union’ should comprise. This respect for the diversity of state interests may be seen as a strength as European integration both deepens and widens, particularly in taking in Central East European states. On the other hand, the inability of the EU to offer a clear model of political development may yet squander the opportunity not only for the EU to achieve a coherent and consensual ‘ever closer union’ but also to show leadership and play a unifying role across the continent.