Re‐Writing Maastricht: The Politics of the 1999 Inter‐Governmental Conference

The Treaty on European Union (1993), otherwise known as the Maastricht Treaty, made provisions for the convening of an intergovernmental conference to be held during 1996 in order to make revisions to that treaty as required. This paper examines the negotiations surrounding the 1996–97 intergovernmental conference and asks why some issues were successfully incorporated into the new Treaty of Amsterdam which emerged, while others were not. Particular attention is paid to the domestic constraints which several EU leaders faced as they approached the bargaining table, and which effectively blocked compromise. This paper argues that the post‐Maastricht political environment has produced a more realistic view of what is politically possible, but that this has resulted in a new treaty which is uncertain and weak.