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The 1992 UK Presidency of the Council of Ministers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Duncan Matthews  and
David G Mayes
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Extract

On 1st July 1992 the UK took over the rotating six month Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the European Community from Portugal at a crucial stage in the history of the European Community: a time when the Community faces a number of challenges which will determine the future direction and development of European integration. These challenges include ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, negotiation of the Delors II package on future financing of the Community, completion of the single market by 31 December 1992, enlargement, establishment of a common foreign and security policy, and progress on the Social Action Programme. This list is not exhaustive: there are certain to be other problems and crises both inside and outside the Community in the coming months which are impossible to predict, and to which the UK Presidency will be expected to coordinate a Community response.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 141 , August 1992 , pp. 71 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

Notes

(1) Under Article 146 of the EEC Treaty, the office of Presidency shall be held for a term of six months by each member of the Council in turn. The sequence until the end of 1992 runs in alphabetical order (according to the name of the country in its own language) and has been: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK. To change the order in which each member state holds the Presidency, the new cycle, beginning in January 1993, will be: Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the UK, and Portugal.

(2) The Commission's programme for 1992 was announced by Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, on 12 February 1992 and is published in Supplement 1/92 of the Bulletin of the European Communities.

(3) This point is made by Mazey, S. & Richardson, J. in a paper Interest Groups and European Integration presented to the Political Studies Association, Belfast, 7-9 April 1992.

(4) The relationship between the Presidency and the Commission is not set down in the EEC Treaty.

(5) Britton, A.J.C. and Mayes, D.G., (1992), Achieving Monetary Union, Sage, translated as Maastricht—und was dann?, Verlag Moderne Industrie.

(6) The Economist, 12th June 1992.

(7) New Statesman & Society, 12 June 1992.

(8) The Economist, 12th June 1992.

(9) Britton, A.J.C. and Mayes, D.G., (1992).

(10) Padoa-Schioppa, T., (1957), Efficiency, Stability and Equity, Oxford University Press.

(11) His proposals are particularly interesting as he uses a log-linear rather than a linear form for the redistributive formula thus increasing the gain to the low GDP/head member states more than proportionately but avoiding an excessive burden on the richer by increasing their net contribution less than proportionately. (iv) budget;

(12) The questionnaire dealt with the following issues: (i) financial perspectives; (ii) agriculture; (iii) monetary reserve; (iv) budget; (v) structural funds (including the cohesion fund); (vi) internal policy (for example, R&TD and trans-European networks); (vii) common foreign and security policy; (viii) Community resources.

(13) The Commission subsequently challenged several aspects of the Court of Auditor's report to the ECOFIN Council, in particular since the Court did not consult the Commission in drafting its report, and because the conclusions concerning the management of the Structural Funds were unfair. (Bulletin Quotidien Europe, Agence Europe, 12 June 1992).

(14) Directives, the predominant instrument used to introduce EC law into national law, require member states to adapt national provisions within a given time-limit so that the requirements of a directive are met.

(15) Remarks made by an official of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, at a recent conference: ‘Problems and Opportunities for the British Presidency’, London, 20-21 May 1992.

(16) Bulletin Quotidien Europe, Agence Europe, 17 July 1992, pp. 3.

(17) Employment Gazette, HMSO, June 1992, pp. 260.

(18) Informal Social Affairs Council, 12th-13th October 1992. Full Social Affairs Council, 1st-2nd December 1992.

(19) Comments made by Tristran Garel-Jones, Foreign Office Minister, in his Presidency address to the European Parliament on 9th July 1992.