At the meeting of the European Council held in Tampere, Finland, on 15 and 16 October 1999, the Heads of State or Government of the Fifteen approve the full and immediate implementation of the Treaty of Amsterdam with regard to internal security within the EU.
In November–December 1999, in the monthly legal journal Revue du Marché Commun et de l’Union Européenne, Charles Elsen, Director General at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, considers the implications of cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs (JHA) in the European Union.
On 15 October 1999, at the Tampere European Council, Nicole Fontaine, President of the European Parliament, discusses the implications of the future European area of freedom, security and justice.
Le 4 septembre 1997, répondant à une question parlementaire à l'Assemblée nationale, Pierre Moscovici, ministre français délégué aux Affaires européennes, détaille les dispositions principales relatives à la mise en oeuvre des coopérations renforcées au sein de l'Union européenne.
On 17 October 1996, as part of the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) for the revision of the Treaty on European Union, Hervé de Charette, French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and his German counterpart, Klaus Kinkel, send a joint letter to Dick Spring, Irish Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of Ministers of the EU, in which they advocate the principle of enhanced cooperation in order to allow Member States who so wish, and who have the capacity to do so, to progress more quickly than others on the road to the deepening of European integration, in particular with a view to the enlargement of the EU.
On 18 June 1997, Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic, and his Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, hold a joint press conference at which they summarise the results achieved by the Fifteen at the end of the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June.
