In June 1997, in the monthly Federalist journal Crocodile, Marcelino Oreja, Member of the European Commission with special responsibility for Institutional Matters and Preparations for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) (in agreement with Commission President, Jacques Santer), highlights the progress and the shortcomings of the Treaty of Amsterdam with regard, in particular, to citizens’ rights, the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and the institutions of the European Union.

On 19 June 1997, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique analyses the scope of the Treaty adopted by the Heads of State or Government of the Fifteen at the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June 1997.

On 29 September 1997, commenting on the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam on 2 October 1997, the Madrid daily newspaper El País criticises the absence of real progress at institutional level in comparison with the Treaty on European Union signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992.

In 1997, in the Federalist journal Crocodile, Biagio De Giovanni, Italian Chairman of the European Parliament Institutional Affairs Committee, criticises the shortcomings of the progress made by the Treaty of Amsterdam in meeting the new challenges of the European Union.

In an article published in the Madrid daily newspaper El País on 1 October 1997, on the eve of the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam, MEPs Jean-Louis Bourlanges (European People’s Party), Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Group of the Greens), Gianfranco Dell’Alba (European Radical Alliance), Olivier Duhamel (Party of European Socialists), José María Mendiluce Pereiro (Party of European Socialists) and Antoinette Spaak (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party) paint a gloomy picture of the economic, social and political situation of the European Union and harshly criticise its inability to take up new challenges.

On 2 October 1997, the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen sign the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts. It enters into force on 1 May 1999.

On 2 October 1997, at the ceremony held to mark the signing by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen of the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related Acts, Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, José María Gil-Robles, President of the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the European Council, and Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, each give an address in which they highlight the progress made by the new treaty.

On 2 October 1997, on the margins of the ceremony to mark the signing by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen of the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, European citizens demonstrate in the streets of Amsterdam to deplore the Treaty’s shortcomings in the area of social policy.

On 2 October 1997, at the ceremony to mark the signing, by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen, of the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and related acts, Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, delivers an address in which he indicates the strengths and weaknesses of the text, with particular regard to citizens’ rights, the area of freedom, security and justice, the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and institutional matters.

On 2 October 1997, at the ceremony held to mark the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union, delivers an address in which he focuses on the advances made in the new Treaty.

On 2 October 1997, the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen sign the Amsterdam Treaty. From left to right: Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission; Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister; Wim Kok, Netherlands Prime Minister; and José María Gil Robles Gil Delgado, President of the European Parliament.

Pages from the Amsterdam Treaty, showing the signatures and seals affixed on 2 October 1997 by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen.

On 3 October 1997, the day after the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen, the French daily newspaper Le Monde considers the shortcomings and weaknesses of the text.

On 6 October 1997, in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, commenting on the signing of the Amsterdam Treaty by the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen on 2 October, Michel Barnier, French Minister for European Affairs, expresses his disappointment at the impact of the Treaty and condemns the postponement of institutional reform.

On 5 March 1998, Klaus Kinkel, German Foreign Minister, outlines to the Bundestag the political and institutional implications of the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and related acts.

In this interview, Jacques Santer, former President of the European Commission, describes the progress achieved with the Treaty of Amsterdam, which entered into force on 1 May 1999, as well as its shortcomings, particularly in the field of internal security.

In this interview, Jean-Jacques Kasel, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the Council of the European Communities, then to the Council of the European Union, from 1992 to 1998, outlines the difficulties that had to be overcome to finalise the Treaty of Amsterdam, signed on 2 October 1997.

In this interview, Hubert Védrine, former French Foreign Minister, discusses what he sees as the shortcomings in the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and related acts, signed on 2 October 1997.

In October 1997, Cesidio Guazzaroni, former Director-General of Economic Affairs at the Italian Foreign Ministry and former European Commissioner, considers the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) for the revision of the Treaty on European Union and identifies the weaknesses of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

En juillet 1997, Silvio Fagiolo, représentant du ministère italien des Affaires étrangères à la Conférence intergouvernementale (CIG) pour la révision du traité sur l'Union européenne, explique les dispositions du nouveau traité d’Amsterdam.

‘Buoyed up by Amsterdam.’ In 1997, cartoonist Fritz Behrendt takes an ironic look at the results of the Treaty of Amsterdam, deemed to be disappointing, and hopes that the introduction of the euro will provide the necessary impetus for European leaders to revive more ambitious projects. (From left to right: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister; Wim Kok, Netherlands Prime Minister; Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission; Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor; Lionel Jospin, French Prime Minister; and Jacques Chirac, French President.)

On 2 October 1997, as the signed copies of the Treaty of Amsterdam leave the Royal Palace, opponents demonstrate on the other side of Dam Square against the provisions in the treaty.