The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties

II. THE AMSTERDAM TREATY
The Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties
establishing the European Communities and certain related acts
[2]
, signed in
Amsterdam on 2 October 1997, entered into force on 1 May 1999.
[2]
OJ C 340, 10.11.1997, p. 115
.

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Fact Sheets on the European Union - 2022
3
www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en
A.
Increased powers for the Union
1.
European Community
With regard to objectives, special prominence was given to balanced and sustainable
development and a high level of employment. A mechanism was set up to coordinate
Member States’ policies on employment, and there was a possibility of some
Community measures in this area. The Agreement on Social Policy was incorporated
into the EC Treaty with some improvements (removal of the opt-out). The Community
method now applied to some major areas which had hitherto come under the third pillar,
such as asylum, immigration, crossing external borders, combating fraud, customs
cooperation and judicial cooperation in civil matters, in addition to some of the
cooperation under the Schengen Agreement, which the EU and Communities endorsed
in full.
2.
European Union
Intergovernmental cooperation in the areas of police and judicial cooperation was
strengthened by defining objectives and precise tasks and creating a new legal
instrument similar to a directive. The instruments of the common foreign and security
policy were developed later, in particular by creating a new instrument, the common
strategy, a new office, the ‘Secretary-General of the Council responsible for the CFSP’,
and a new structure, the ‘Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit’.
B.
A stronger position for Parliament
1.
Legislative power
Under the codecision procedure, which was extended to the existing 15 legal bases
under the EC Treaty, Parliament and the Council became co-legislators on a practically
equal footing. With the exception of agriculture and competition policy, the codecision
procedure applied to all the areas where the Council was permitted to take decisions
by qualified majority. In four cases (Articles 18, 42 and 47 and Article 151 on cultural
policy, which remained unchanged) the codecision procedure was combined with a
requirement for a unanimous decision in the Council. The other legislative areas where
unanimity was required were not subject to codecision.
2.
Power of control
As well as voting to approve the Commission as a body, Parliament also had a vote
to approve in advance the person nominated as President of the future Commission
(Article 214).
3.
Election and statute of Members
With regard to the procedure for elections to Parliament by direct universal suffrage
(Article 190 of the EC Treaty), the Community’s power to adopt common principles
was added to the existing p