Drawing Lessons in the Chair: Assessing the Dutch Presidency’s Impact during the Maastricht and Amsterdam Conferences (original) (raw)

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2006

Abstract

From the Single European Act (SEA) in 1986 to the 2003–04 IGC that agreed to a European Constitutional Treaty, member states and institutions of the European Union (EU) have engaged in a process of almost continuous treaty revisions. As a participant in European Community (EC) treaty reform in the early 1990s observed: ‘negotiation about the future direction of the EC is, in fact, the norm rather than the exception’ (Corbett 1992). As a founding member of the European Communities,1 the Netherlands evidences a traditional concern about domination by the large member states. The fear is that Dutch interests will be subordinate to those of the ‘Big Three’ – Germany, France and Britain. This serves as a historical and sociological basis for Dutch attitudes vis-a-vis the Presidency of the Council. It also explains why the Dutch traditionally sought an independent European Commission as an ally (Jensen 1985).

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