Economic and monetary union (EMU) is the process whereby the economic and monetary policies of the Member States of the Union are being harmonised with a view to the introduction of a single currency. It was the subject of one of the two Intergovernmental Conferences held in December 1990. The Treaty provides that EMU is to be achieved in three stages:
Economic and social cohesion was introduced into the Treaty establishing the European Community following the Single European Act. It is an expression of solidarity between the Member States and regions of the European Union. This means balanced, sustainable development, the narrowing of structural disparities between regions and countries and the promoting of equal opportunities for all individuals. In practical terms it is achieved by means of a variety of financing operations, particularly through the Structural Funds.
Every three years the European Commission must present a report on progress made in achieving economic and social cohesion and on the manner in which the various means provided for in the Treaty have contributed to it.
The future of economic and social cohesion is one of the major issues discussed in the Commission's Agenda 2000 communication, particularly because of its budgetary implications.
The Economic and Social Committee consists of 222 members divided into three groups: employers, workers and representatives of particular categories of activity (farmers, craftsmen, the professions, representatives of consumers, the scientific and teaching community, cooperatives, families, environmental movements etc.). It is consulted before a great many acts are adopted, and it may also issue opinions on its own initiative.
Once the Treaty of Amsterdam has entered into force, the Economic and Social Committee will have to be consulted on a wider range of issues (the new employment policy, social affairs, public health). The new Treaty also provides for it to be consulted by the European Parliament.
National economic policies are identified in the Treaty as a matter of common concern requiring a degree of coordination within the Council to help attain the Community's objectives.
In practical terms, the Council, acting by a qualified majority on a recommendation from the Commission, formulates draft guidelines which are sent to the European Council. In the light of that body's conclusions, the Council, again by qualified majority, adopts a recommendation setting out the broad guidelines of the economic policies of the Member States and the Community and informs the European Parliament (Article 103(2)).
It should be noted that the provisions on economic policy included in Articles 102a to 104c provide for several other procedures depending on the matter in hand:
The institutional provisions (Art. 109a-109d) and transitional provisions (Art. 109e-109m) concerning Title VI of the EC Treaty (economic and monetary policy) have their own special decision-making procedures which are separate from those identified here.
Employment is one of the key concerns of the Member States, for unemployment is running at a high level (currently around 11% in the Union). Following on from the Commission's 1993 White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, the Essen European Council (9 and 10 December 1994) identified five priority areas for action to promote employment:
The Council and the Commission presented a joint report on the action taken on these five priorities at the Dublin European Council (13 and 14 December 1996).
Similarly the Confidence Pact for Employment presented by the Commission President in June 1996 seeks to mobilise all the actors concerned in a genuine strategy for employment, to make employment a matter of common interest at European level and incorporate the fight against unemployment in a medium and long-term vision of society.
Once the Treaty of Amsterdam has entered into force, employment will be one of the objectives of the European Community, which will have new powers, together with the Member States, to work towards a coordinated strategy for employment. To this end, a new title on employment will be written into the Treaty establishing the European Community, which will provide for:
An extraordinary summit on employment was held on 21 November 1997, focusing on employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities.
The Employment and Labour Market Committee was set up by Council Decision of 20 December 1996. It is made up of two representatives of each Member State and two representatives of the Commission and has the task of assisting the Council in carrying out its responsibilities in these fields. In particular it keeps track of employment trends in the Community and monitors Member States' employment and labour market policies; it also facilitates exchanges of information and experience between Member States and with the Commission in these fields and produces reports and recommendations on these questions.
The Treaty of Amsterdam provides for the creation of an Employment Committee with advisory status, which will have the task of promoting coordination between Member States' employment and labour market policies and formulating opinions on these matters. It will replace the Employment and Labour Market Committee and have the same composition.
Enlargement or widening is the term used to refer to the four successive waves of new members joining the Community. Nine countries have so far joined the six founder members - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - at the following times:
With the growing number of applicants for membership, the concept of enlargement has taken on a very special sense which derives from the belief that the system established by the Treaty of Rome cannot function effectively in a 25- to 30-member Union without a reform of the institutions and certain Union policies. The debate has as a result polarised around the terms "enlargement" and "deepening". Some believe that there can be no question of increasing the number of members without a complete overhaul of the institutions and of the way the European Union operates. Others maintain that enlargement is the priority (the thought in the back of their minds often being that it will water down the Union's political aspirations).
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, a Protocol on the institutions will be annexed to the Treaty on European Union, providing for the convening of a new intergovernmental conference, at least one year before the membership of the Union exceeds twenty, in order to settle the institutional problems relating to enlargement, in particular the weighting of votes and the composition of the Commission. It has been argued that the extension of qualified majority voting is an indispensable condition for the smooth functioning of the institutions in an enlarged Europe (see the joint declaration by Belgium, France and Italy attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference).
On 15 July 1997 the Commission adopted Agenda 2000, a document which is closely bound up with enlargement and deals with all the issues facing the European Union at the beginning of the 21st century.
The aim of the Community policy on environment is to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment and to protect people's health. It also attaches importance to the prudent and rational use of natural resources. Lastly, it helps to promote measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems (Article 130r).
Policy preparation is subject to different decision-making procedures depending on the areas affected by the provisions to be adapted . Thus, with a view to attaining the objectives listed in Article 130r, the Council:
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the concept of "sustainable development" will be laid down as one of the European Union's objectives, and environmental protection requirements will be given greater weight in other Community policies, particularly in relation to the single market.
The provisions allowing a Member State to apply rules that are stricter than the harmonised rules will be extended and clarified. Under certain restrictive conditions, a Member State will be allowed to avail itself of this possibility in adopting new measures in response to an environmental problem specific to that State.
The Commission will continue to monitor these stricter measures to ensure that they do not constitute an obstacle to the functioning of the single market. The Commission itself has undertaken to prepare environmental impact assessments when making proposals which may have significant environmental implications.
Equal opportunities is a general principle, essential aspects of which are written into Article 6 (ban on discrimination on grounds of nationality) and Article 119 (equal pay for men and women) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. It is intended to apply to all fields, particularly economic, social, cultural and family life.
When the Treaty of Amsterdam enters into force, a new Article 6a will be inserted in the Treaty, reinforcing the principle of non-discrimination which is closely linked to equal opportunities. Under this new Article, the Council will have the power to take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
As early as 1957 the Treaty of Rome laid down the principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work. Since 1975 there has been a series of directives which have broadened the principle to cover access to employment, training and career progression and working conditions, in order to eliminate all forms of discrimination at work. Equal treatment was later extended to social security, statutory schemes and occupational schemes. In the 1980s recognition of this principle led to the promotion of equal opportunities via multiannual programmes.
The Treaty of Amsterdam seeks to supplement Article 119 (which is rather limited in scope, covering only equal pay) by including the promotion of equality between men and women as one of the tasks of the Community set out in Article 2 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Eurocorps was set up at the 59th Franco-German summit, which took place in La Rochelle on 21 and 22 May 1992. Three other countries have since joined it: Belgium on 25 June 1993, Spain on 10 December 1993 and Luxembourg on 7 May 1996. It comprises 50 000 men and has been operational since 30 November 1995, following the Pegasus-95 exercise.
Eurocorps forms part of the Forces answerable to Western European Union (FAWEU). It can operate as such within WEU (Article V) or NATO (Article 5) and can be mobilised for humanitarian missions, missions to evacuate Member State nationals and peace-restoring or peace-keeping operations, under the aegis of the United Nations or the OSCE. The commitment of Eurocorps under the political control of WEU was the subject of an agreement signed on 24 September 1993 and commitment under NATO authority was codified by the agreement of 21 January 1993.
The Lisbon Declaration of the Western European Union on 15 May 1995 ratified the decision by Spain, France and Italy to set up land and sea forces (EUROFOR and EUROMARFOR). These will form part of the Forces answerable to WEU (FAWEU) and should strengthen Europe's own capacity for operations under the Petersberg Declaration. Portugal has agreed to participate in the two forces when they are being used within the WEU context, without prejudice to the Member States' collective defence position (Article V, WEU, and Article 5, NATO).
This refers to the idea of a non-uniform method of integration which allows Member States to select policies as if from a menu and involve themselves fully in those policies; there would still be a minimum number of common objectives.
The European Central Bank is an institution to be set up on transition to the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (introduction of the single currency on 1 January 1999) and will be responsible for carrying out the Community's monetary policy. As to the practicalities, the ECB's decision-making bodies (the Governing Council and the Executive Board) will run a European System of Central Banks (ESCB) whose tasks will be to manage the money in circulation, conduct foreign-exchange operations, hold and manage the Member States' official foreign reserves and promote the smooth operation of payment systems. The ECB will take over from the existing European Monetary Institute (EMI), which is a precursor to it.
This is the idea of a text setting out, in precise, concise and accessible form, the basic principles underlying the European political system. Such a charter would contain the major principles of institutional organisation at the Union level and those governing relations between the institutions and the Union's citizens. Alongside this a separate text would incorporate and arrange in order the existing treaties, i.e. the texts relating to the Union's powers and how they are exercised.
The European Commission is a body with powers of initiative, implementation, management and control. It is the guardian of the Treaties and the embodiment of the interests of the Community. It is composed of twenty independent members (two each from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and one each from all the other countries). It is appointed for a five-year term, by agreement among the Member States, and is subject to a vote of appointment by the European Parliament, to which it is answerable, before it can be sworn in. The Commissioners are assisted by an administration made up of directorates-general and specialised departments whose staff are divided mainly between Brussels and Luxembourg.
In adopting the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Intergovernmental Conference took note of the Commission's intention to prepare a reorganisation of tasks among the Commissioners before the next Commission takes up office in 2000 and at the same time to embark on a corresponding reorganisation of its departments.
The European Commission tackled the question of reforming its internal procedures in Agenda 2000, a document it adopted on 15 July 1997, which refers to the far-reaching programme of reforms already under way at the Commission under the SEM 2000 (Sound and Efficient Management) and MAP 2000 (Modernisation of Administration and Personnel Policy) initiatives and stresses the need for the Commission to regroup and redefine its tasks, taking into account the needs of the 21st century.
The European Convention on Human Rights signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 established, for the first time, a system of international protection for human rights by entitling individuals to apply to the courts for the enforcement of their rights. The Convention established a number of supervisory bodies based in Strasbourg. These are:
The idea of the European Union acceding to the ECHR has often been raised. However, in an opinion given on 28 March 1996, the European Court of Justice came out against such a possibility in view of the potential conflicts over jurisdiction between itself and the European Court of Human Rights.
The European Council is the term used to describe the regular meetings of the Heads of State or Government of the European Union Member States. It was set up by the communiqué issued at the close of the December 1974 Paris Summit and first met in 1975 (in Dublin, on 10 and 11 March). Before that time, from 1961 to 1974, the practice had been to hold European summit conferences. Its existence was given legal recognition by the Single European Act, while official status was conferred on it by the Treaty on European Union. It meets at least twice a year and the President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Its objectives are to give the European Union the impetus it needs in order to develop further and to define general policy guidelines.
The European Parliament is the assembly of the representatives of the 370 million Union citizens. Since 1979 they have been elected by direct universal suffrage and today total 626 distributed between Member States by reference to their population. Parliament's main functions are as follows:
It has appointed an Ombudsman empowered to receive complaints from Union citizens concerning maladministration in the activities of the Community institutions or bodies. Finally, it can appoint temporary committees of inquiry whose powers are not confined to examining the actions of the Community institutions but may also relate to actions by Member States in implementing Community policies.
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the various legislative procedures will be simplified. The cooperation procedure will virtually disappear (it will continue to apply in a few cases coming under the Title on economic and monetary union) and there will be a widespread extension of the codecision procedure.
The idea of a European Police Office was first raised at the Luxembourg European Council on 28 and 29 June 1991. The plan then was to set up a new body which would provide a structure for developing police cooperation between Member States in preventing and combating serious forms of international organised crime, including terrorism and drug trafficking. However, the convention establishing Europol was not signed until July 1995 and has still not entered into force. In order to lose no time in giving practical shape to the police cooperation defined in Title VI of the Treaty on European Union, a Europol Drugs Unit was established in January 1994.
The prime objective of this Unit was to combat drug trafficking and associated money laundering. Its terms of reference were subsequently extended to cover measures to combat trafficking in radioactive and nuclear substances, clandestine immigration networks, vehicle trafficking and money laundering associated with these criminal activities; the fight against trade in human beings was also added later.
The Treaty of Amsterdam will confer a number of different tasks on Europol in future: to coordinate and implement specific measures carried out by the Member States' authorities, to develop specialised expertise in order to help Member States in their investigations into organised crime and to establish contacts with prosecutors and investigators specialising in the fight against organised crime.
European political cooperation (EPC) was introduced informally in 1970 (in response to the Davignon report) and formalised by the Single European Act with effect from 1987. The object is consultations between the Member States in foreign policy matters. The Member States have regard for the views of the European Parliament and wherever possible take common positions in international organisations. EPC was superseded by the common foreign and security policy.
The idea of developing a European defence identity has been prompted by two considerations:
Against this background, the NATO Council held in Brussels in January 1994 recognised the importance of defining a specifically European identity in relation to security and defence. The first steps towards this were taken at the NATO Council held in Berlin on 3 June 1996 with the development of the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTF), to which the Ministers of the Alliance subscribed at the January 1994 summit as a means of using NATO's military capacity in operations led by the WEU under its political control and strategic management. Europe will also have elements within NATO's military structure carrying out command functions and wearing two hats: NATO's and Europe's. European command dispositions of this kind should be identifiable and sufficiently well structured to ensure that a militarily coherent and effective operational force can be put together at speed.
The European Community's external responsibilities are defined in accordance with whether they are conferred on the Community or on the Member States. They are described as "exclusive" where they are exercised entirely by the Community (e.g. the common agricultural policy) and "mixed" where they are shared with the Member States (e.g. the transport policy). The distinction has been defined in Court of Justice case law and is based on the principle of implicit responsibility, whereby external responsibility derives from the existence of internal responsibility. The Treaty confers explicit responsibility in only two cases (commercial policy in Article 113 and the association agreements in Article 238).
It should be pointed out that the common foreign and security policy comes under the European Union's external relations, which are governed by intergovernmental procedures (second pillar), and not the external responsibilities of the European Community.
The growth in the Community's activities (e.g. the completion of the single market), developments in world trade and the less clear-cut case law have made the exercise of external powers more problematic, while at the same time entailing a far-reaching duty to cooperate and coordinate in the name of a united front in international representation.
To enable the Community to adapt to the radical changes in the structures of the world economy and reflect the extensive responsibilities given to the World Trade Organisation, Article 113 of the Treaty establishing the European Community will be amended, on the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, to allow the Council, acting unanimously, to extend the scope of the common commercial policy to international negotiations and agreements on services and intellectual property.