The Intergovernmental Conference of 1996
Description
This article is from the European Union FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout with numerous contributions by others.
The Intergovernmental Conference of 1996
The EU being an association of member states, changes to the Treaties are
negotiatied by representatives of the member state governments, and approved
(and ratified) by all national parliaments, in some countries with the
active involvement of the people at large through a referendum. The
negotiation part of this process is conducted in what is called an
Intergovernmental Conference or IGC.
This year (1996), a new Intergovernmental Conference will start negotiating
about changes to the treaties, as this is a legal requirement of the
Maastricht Treaty (laid down at the insistence of the German and some other
member states' governments that were unsatisfied with the +meagre; results
of Maastricht.
Although the Maastricht Treaty does not stipulate which parts of the
Treaties should be open to revision, there has seemed to be agreement on the
main topics of discussion for the 1996 IGC for some time now, if not at
their outcome.
The European Council[16] has clearly added to this by having a +Reflection
Group; list an inventory of Member States' concerns for the Conference well
in advance of its actual start (29 March 1996 in Torino, IT).
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