On 18 January 1991, the national delegations are informed of the reservations expressed by the United Kingdom at the meeting of 15 January between the representatives to the Intergovernmental Conference on Economic and Monetary Union. The United Kingdom states that it is willing to negotiate on all the proposed texts but that it is unable to participate in a monetary union in the long term.
On 10 December 1990, the Commission of the European Communities submits to the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference its draft revision treaty for the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Union. This draft incorporates the preparatory work carried out since the Hanover Council and various additional contributions. It identifies the points that have yet to secure agreement and sets out the arrangements for the transition from one stage to the next.
On 10 December 1990, the Commission of the European Communities sets out the comments, article by article, on its draft treaty revising the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community with a view to the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Union. This working document is aimed at the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference.
In this interview excerpt, Philippe de Schoutheete, Belgian Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1987 to 1997, describes the organisation of the Belgian delegation during the 1996–1997 Intergovernmental Conference that led to the Treaty of Amsterdam, and summarises the priorities set out in the Benelux memorandum that was drafted on this occasion.
In this interview excerpt, Philippe de Schoutheete, Belgian Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1987 to 1997, describes the context in which the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) was opened in Turin at the end of March 1996. He goes on to emphasise some differences between this IGC, which led to the conclusion of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, and the previous IGC that had resulted in the Treaty of Maastricht.
On 16 December 1995, at the Madrid European Council, the Reflection Group established by the Corfu European Council of 24 and 25 June 1994 and chaired by Carlos Westendorp y Cabeza, Spanish Junior Minister for European Affairs, responsible for making preparations for the revision of the Treaty and for the drawing up of guidelines for reform of the European Union, proposes an agenda for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).
On 25 June 1994, the Corfu European Council decides to establish a ‘Reflection Group’ instructed to make preparations, before the end of 1995, for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference (ICG) on the reform of the Treaty on European Union.
On 3 and 4 June 1999, the Cologne European Council reaffirms the need to convene an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) aimed at resolving the institutional issues which were not settled in Amsterdam.
In this interview excerpt, Joseph Weyland, Permanent Representative to the European Communities from 1984 to 1991 and Chairman of the Group of Personal Representatives of the Foreign Ministers of the European Communities from 1 January to 30 June 1991, recalls the origins of the new institutional architecture agreed on at the 1991 Intergovernmental Conference on Political Union. This structure is generally represented as a Greek temple with three pillars: the supranational Community pillar and the second and third pillars which are intergovernmental in nature.
In this interview excerpt, Pierre Pescatore, a Luxembourg diplomat from 1947 to 1967 and a member of the Drafting Group at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom from October 1956 to March 1957, describes his memories of these negotiations, which led to the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). He particularly mentions the roles played by Yves Devadder, Head of the Legal Office in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, and his Dutch counterpart, Willem Riphagen.