- 1999: Treaty of Amsterdam
The Treaty of Amsterdam is rather a revising than a pioneering treaty that came into force after a long ratification process in 1999. The Treaty was supposed to focus on the preparation of the accession of the Central and Eastern European States and the necessary changes that had to be made to the Common Agricultural Policy and the Structural Funds. The size of the members of each institution had also to be tackled if the institutions were not to turn into an every growing dysfunctional apparatus:
- The European Parliament was supposed to be reduced to 700 MEPs
- The states that have had two commissioners would have to dispose of one with the next enlargement round provided that they are compensated in the distribution of votes per country in the Council
- A national veto was introduced - if “for important and stated reasons of national policy” a state opposed the adoption of a decision by QMV, the vote would not be taken = a vital national interest veto was introduced and given treaty status
- The Petersberg tasks – humanitarian, rescue, peacekeeping tasks as well as crisis management and peacekeeping were identified as specific security issues falling under the remit of the EU
- The cooperation procedure was virtually abandoned and the co-decision procedure extended
