In this interview excerpt, Philippe de Schoutheete, Honorary Belgian Ambassador and Special Adviser to European Commissioner Michel Barnier from 1999 to 2004, discusses the report drafted by the group of ‘Wise Men’ (Jean-Luc Dehaene, Richard von Weizsäcker and Lord David Simon), which he chaired. This group was set up in 1999 by European Commission President Romano Prodi to reflect on the institutional implications of European Union enlargement.

In this interview excerpt, Philippe de Schoutheete, Honorary Belgian Ambassador and Special Adviser to European Commissioner Michel Barnier from 1999 to 2004, gives his assessment of the 2001 Treaty of Nice, particularly emphasising the inefficiency of the negotiation process.

In this interview excerpt, Philippe de Schoutheete, Honorary Belgian Ambassador and Special Adviser to European Commissioner Michel Barnier from 1999 to 2004, describes the reactions that followed the negative result in the referendum held on 7 June 2001 in Ireland for the ratification of the Treaty of Nice. Philippe de Schoutheete identifies the possible solutions that can be employed when a treaty is rejected by referendum, particularly recalling the Danish ‘no’ in the first referendum on the Treaty of Maastricht.