BRITISH MANAGEMENT DATA FOUNDATION

The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed on 2 October 1997. All the Member States have to ratify the Treaty by their respective legislative procedures for it to become law.

The intentions for the Treaty were ambitious and included the granting of legal personality to the Union, internal and external security - including the introduction of the Schengen agreement into the main Treaty and regulations on visas and immigration - and the development of the role of the European Community institutions in preparation for enlargement.

In the event, the aims were only partially achieved, not least that legal personality was not given to the Union, leaving the further development of the European Community to be continued at the next Inter-Governmental Conference, which is expected to be in either in the year 2000 or 2001.

As such, Amsterdam is not a Treaty in its own right, but is the successor to the Maastricht Treaty in the development of the Treaties establishing the European Union. It follows the format of the previous Treaties (the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty) in being a series of amendments and additions to the Treaty of Rome.

The general approach taken in this book is that the new provisions introduced by each successive Treaty should be placed in the context of the preceding Treaties and the differences highlighted in order that the implications can be fully understood and how the fundamental law of the Community has been altered and developed.

The format follows 'The Maastricht Treaty in Perspective - Consolidated Treaty on European Union', first published by the British Management Data Foundation in October 1992. There is a summary of the key issues covered by the Treaty, a discussion on the additional 'competences' of the European institutions and a three-column analysis of the development of competences from the Treaty of Rome to the Treaty of Amsterdam.

The three-columnar approach allows the reader to assess how the Treaties have progressed and developed and shows the details of the changes introduced by Amsterdam to the overall European Treaty. This includes the identification of the Articles and sentences that have been repealed by Amsterdam.

The Treaty of Rome and the Single European Act have been combined into one column for clarity and in order to highlight the amendments and additions introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Maastricht Treaty. If readers wish to see the changes made to the original Treaty of Rome by the Single European Act, they should refer to 'The Maastricht Treaty in Perspective'.

The changes to the Treaty on European Union introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam have been integrated into the text of the existing Treaty and are shown in bold text. A fuller explanation of the text is shown on page VII.

This book includes the full text of the Treaty on European Union (except the Titles III and IV - see next paragraph), as amended by Amsterdam, as well as all of the associated Protocols, including those introduced by previous Treaties. The remaining Articles of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which do not directly refer to adjustments to the Treaties, and all of the Declarations agreed at Amsterdam are also shown, starting on page 161.

Title III, the European Coal and Steel Community, and Title IV, the European Atomic Energy Community, have not been included, as the amendments introduced by Amsterdam are principally concerned with administrative matters intended to bring these two Treaties in line with the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community.

The Appendices include additional documents agreed at Amsterdam, in particular a Resolution by the European Council on the new Exchange-Rate Mechanism to be introduced when the Single Currency starts on 1 January 1999.

Sources and References:

The text of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty on European Union is drawn from the official texts of the Treaties:

The Treaty of Amsterdam; Official Journal 97/C 340/01, the Luxembourg official publication, ISSN 0378-6986, dated 10 November 1997 [ISBN 011-916-2938].

European Union: Consolidated Treaties; the Luxembourg official publication, FX-08-97-606-EN-C, dated 2 October 1997 [ISBN 92-828-1640-0].

Treaties establishing the European Communities, Cm 3151 HMSO January 1996 [ISBN 0-10-1315120].

Treaty of Amsterdam, Cm 3780 HMSO October 1997 [ISBN 0-10-1378025].

This website was designed and written by Andrew Cowgill and was last updated
on 22 February 1999

© Copyright Anthony Cowgill and Andrew Cowgill, 1999