Amsterdam Treaty

The Amsterdam Treaty was a treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities, i.e. the EC Treaty , the EURATOM Treaty and the ECSC Treaty , which was still in force at the time , as well as some related legal acts . It was originally intended to keep the European Union capable of acting even after the eastward expansion . A thoroughgoing reform of the EU failed, however, and made further reforms necessary. At its meeting in Cologne on June 3 and 4, 1999, the European Council called an intergovernmental conference for the year 2000 to deal with the reforms that were still outstanding.

The treaty was adopted by the heads of state and government of the European Union on the occasion of their meeting in the European Council in Amsterdam on June 18, 1997 and signed on October 2, 1997. It came into force on May 1, 1999. The legal status thus created was changed again on February 1, 2003 by the Treaty of Nice .

Democratization

The treaty significantly expanded the powers of the European Parliament by strengthening its rights under the codecision procedure. The codecision procedure had already been introduced in the Maastricht Treaty in some areas and placed Parliament on the same level as the Council . With the Amsterdam Treaty, the codecision procedure now applied in almost all areas where the Council decided by qualified majority . Agriculture - the largest financial item in the European Union - remained an important exception.

The European Parliament's rights were also expanded when the Commission was appointed : after the Amsterdam Treaty came into force, Parliament had to approve not only the appointment of the Commission as a whole, but also the appointment of the Commission President in advance .

However, there were still deficits in democratization , as the parliament - the only popularly elected body of the EU - does not have the right of initiative for legislative proposals. This right was and still lies with the Commission, which as an executive body also has important legislative functions.

The new decision-making procedure that was introduced in the area of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters was also problematic in terms of democracy theory . Important decisions were previously only possible in the form of conventions, i.e. separate international agreements , which then had to be ratified by the parliaments of all member states. Thanks to the Amsterdam Treaty, these decisions could now be taken in the form of a unanimous Council decision without the national parliaments or the European Parliament being involved.

Employment policy

Due to rising unemployment in Europe, employment policy was included as the main objective in the contracts for the first time . However, employment policy remained in the hands of the nation states, but better coordination of the Member States' measures was agreed.

Area of ​​freedom, security and justice

→ Main article : Area of ​​freedom, security and justice

With the Treaty of Amsterdam the aim of establishing the “area for freedom, security and justice” was included in the treaties. For this purpose, in the interest of closer cooperation, judicial cooperation in civil matters and the regulations on the accompanying measures for the free movement of persons (migration, asylum, immigration policy) have been transferred from the intergovernmental third to the supranational first pillar (“ communitized ”). The decision-making procedures of the police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters , which remained in the third pillar , were also simplified, as decisions could now be made through a unanimous Council decision , which was immediately valid even without parliamentary ratification. Previously, common laws could only be concluded through separate international treaties (so-called agreements or conventions). In addition, the rights of the European police authority Europol were expanded and the Schengen Agreement was incorporated into the treaties in the form of a protocol. The free movement of people , i.e. crossing borders within the EU without personal controls, has thus become a contractually established right.

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

As part of the development of a common foreign and security policy , the heads of state and government created the post of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (also known as Mr. CFSP for short), who should represent the Union externally.

The decisions in the Council ( Council for General Affairs and External Relations ) were, however, still taken unanimously, giving each country the right to veto . Only the implementation of resolutions that were passed unanimously in the Council could be decided with a majority decision.

Institutional reform and "Amsterdam left-overs"

In order to remain able to act in an enlarged Union, it was agreed that the larger states would renounce their second commissioner after enlargement. In addition, the Amsterdam Treaty stipulated that the European Parliament should not exceed 700 members after the enlargement of the EU. The majority procedure was extended, but unanimity was retained in many areas . The possibility of suspending EU membership if a member state violates the principles of the EU, as well as the enhanced cooperation procedure , have also been newly created .

Despite these reforms, even after the Amsterdam Treaty, the prevailing view was that the EU institutions would become too big after enlargement and could lose their ability to act. In particular, the weighting of votes in the Council of the European Union and the size of the European Parliament continued to be viewed as problematic. They were therefore also referred to as the Amsterdam left-overs (for example: “Remnants of Amsterdam”), which were finally dealt with in the 2000 Treaty of Nice .

Renumbering of the EUV and the EGV

Art. 12 of the Amsterdam Treaty provides for a renumbering of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community. The renumbering was carried out according to the correspondence tables in the appendix to the contract. The European Court of Justice now wished, when citing standards in new numbering, that the Treaty on European Union be cited with “EU” and the Treaty establishing the European Community with “EC”. This was intended to make it clear that the new numbering was quoted, the abbreviations "EUV" and "EGV" continued to stand for the old numbering. The contracts as such were also cited as such using the abbreviations “EUV” and “EGV” to distinguish them from the respective institutions. The literature largely followed this requirement.

Signatures

Belgium	Denmark	Finland	France	Greece	Ireland	Italy	Luxembourg	Netherlands
Portugal	Spain	Great Britain	Sweden	Germany	Austria

Chronological order

Sign in force contract

1948 1948 Brussels Pact

1951 1952 Paris

1954 1955 Paris Treaties

1957 1958 Rome

1965 1967 merger agreement

1986 1987 Single European Act

1992 1993 Maastricht

1997 1999 Amsterdam

2001 2003 Nice

2007 2009 Lisbon

European Communities

Three pillars of the European Union

European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)

→

←

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

Contract expired in 2002

European Union (EU)

European Economic Community (EEC)

European Community (EC)

→

Justice and Home Affairs (JI)

Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (PJZS)

←

European Political Cooperation (EPC)

→

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

←

Western Union (WU)

Western European Union (WEU)

dissolved on July 1, 2011

Web links

Commons : Treaty of Amsterdam  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Treaty of Amsterdam of October 2, 1997 .
• Treaty on European Union in the consolidated version of May 1, 1999 .
• Treaty establishing the European Community in the consolidated version of May 1, 1999 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ A. Maurer: Treaty of Amsterdam. In: The European Lexicon. Federal Agency for Civic Education , accessed on April 20, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Correspondence tables according to Art. 12 of the Treaty of Amsterdam: PDF .