European integration in the 1980s: on the way to Maastricht

This article seeks to identify the roots of the Maastricht Treaty that pre-date the geopolitical earthquake of 1989-91. It argues that, vital though this wider context would ultimately be, much of the agenda of the eventual treaty negotiations owed as much if not more to the trajectory of the European integration process in the course of the 1980s. In order to demonstrate this, the article will focus on four different 'trends' that had emerged during the 1980s each of which fed through into the Maastricht debates. These trends are first the importance of treaty change as opposed to less formalised advance, second the desire to 'tidy up' those aspects of the integration process that had begun outside of the formal Community context, third the ever greater faith in institutional change as a means to cope with the EC's constantly expanding range of tasks and challenges, and fourth a tendency towards policy spillover. All of these would play a vital role in discussions amongst the Twelve.