Intergovernmental Conference (IGC)

The glossary is being updated given the recent signing of the Treaty of Lisbon.

This term is used to describe negotiations between the Member States' governments with a view to amending the Treaties. Intergovernmental conferences play a major part in European integration, since institutional changes must always be the outcome of such negotiations.

These conferences are convened, at the initiative of a Member State or the Commission, by the Council of Ministers acting by a simple majority (after consulting the European Parliament and, if appropriate, the Commission).

The preparatory work is entrusted to a group consisting of a representative of each of the Member States' governments and, as a matter of custom, a representative of the Commission. The European Parliament is closely involved throughout by means of observers and discussions with the President of the Parliament. This group regularly reports to the General Affairs Council. The final decisions are taken by the heads of state and government at a European Council. It should be noted that the preparatory work for the 2004 IGC took a more unusual course, as it was entrusted to a Convention and accompanied by a wide-ranging public debate.

The most important IGCs in recent years have resulted in the following treaties:

• The Single European Act (1986): this introduced the changes needed to complete the internal market on 1 January 1993.
• The Treaty of Maastricht (1992): the Treaty on European Union was negotiated at two separate IGCs, one on economic and monetary union (EMU) and the other on political union, instituting the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and cooperation on justice and home affairs (JHA).
• The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997): this is the result of the IGC launched at the Turin European Council in March 1996. The task of the Conference was to revise those provisions of the Maastricht Treaty which gave rise to problems of implementation and to prepare for future enlargement.
• The Treaty of Nice (2001): the IGC preceding this was launched in February 2000 to address the issues not resolved by the Treaty of Amsterdam, namely: the size and composition of the European Commission, the weighting of votes in the Council of Ministers, the possible extension of qualified majority voting in the Council and closer cooperation - included during the Santa Maria de Feira European Council of June 2000.

See:

• European Convention
• Revision of the Treaties
• Treaties
• Treaty of Amsterdam
• Treaty of Nice