With all the promotion for events like YO!Fest 2017, you will likely see the words “Maastricht treaty” being casually mentioned in emails, posts on social media, promotional texts and others. But what exactly is the Maastricht treaty and why is it significant now? These and more questions will be answered in the article below.

What is the Maastricht treaty?

In a nutshell, the Maastricht treaty is what created the European Union, and drafted what it meant to be a member state. There would later be amendments to this treaty in Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon, but, simply put, the Maastricht treaty can be seen as the ‘mother treaty’. It created the concept of European citizenship for the citizens of its twelve member states at that time, and it laid out the plans for what would be the economic and monetary union with a single currency- the Euro.

Why is it significant now?

The laws in the Maastricht treaty have had an impact on the life of all citizens of the member countries of the European Union, because this very document largely defines what it means to be part of the European Union; to this day it still serves as the anchor point for the European Union as a whole and for the national governments of the member states. It becomes especially significant now, since we are approaching the 25th anniversary of the signing of the treaty (signed in Maastricht on 7 Feb. 1992) that has influenced the legislation for almost an entire generation.

What were the objectives of the Maastricht treaty?

According to Article B of the Maastricht treaty, the EU shall set the objectives of promoting balanced and sustainable economic and social progress, most notably by:

• creating an area without internal frontiers, with a single currency;
• implementing a common foreign and security policy, with the option of leading to a common defence of the union;
• creating a European citizenship;
• analysing and eventually revising policies and forms of cooperation, if necessary, for the assurance of the effectiveness of the mechanisms and institutions of the European Community.

Did the Maastricht treaty have immediate acceptance?

No. Three countries in Europe: Denmark, France and Ireland, held referendums on the signing of the Maastricht treaty in 1992.

The Danish rejected the Maastricht treaty with 50.7 voting against and 49. 3 per cent voting in favour with a turnout of 83.1 per cent. This led to the “National Compromise”, which called for four exceptions for Denmark: the country would not participate in a common defence action, it would not take part in the single currency or other economic policy obligations linked to the third stage of the EMU, it would not be committed in relation to union citizenship, and it refused to accept the transfer of sovereignty in the area of justice and police affairs.

Ireland and France voted in favour of the Maastricht treaty, but in France this was only done by a relatively slim margin: in the end, with a turnout of 69,8%, the difference was decided by slightly more than half a million votes.

John Major, the then prime minister of the UK, signed the treaty, but also negotiated for a special opt-out of the Social Chapter provisions on employment law for the United Kingdom. This, however, still needed to be ratified by the British parliament in 1993. Opposition to the opt-out was fierce, and the debate on dismissing the opt-out escalated to a point where parliament almost lost confidence in Major’s leadership.

Decades later, issues surrounding the transfer of sovereignty and the allowance of opt-outs would still play an important role in European politics, such as the EU-UK negotiations on the very eve of the Brexit.

Had Jean-Claude Junker have anything to do with the treaty?

Yes, the current President of the European Commission was deeply involved with the creation of the EU, even back in 1992. There is a lot of information you can find about Junker and the Maastricht treaty (and we encourage you to do so), but perhaps one of the most outstanding things he did was that he literally left his mark on the treaty, signing it in 1992 in his capacity as Minister for Finance of Luxembourg.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Sources in the links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/euro-glossary/1216944.stm

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/556938/IPOL_STU(2016)556938_EN.pdf

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/treaty/pdf/amst-en.pdf

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ftu/pdf/en/FTU_1.1.4.pdf

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ftu/pdf/en/FTU_1.1.5.pdf

https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/europaeu/files/docs/body/treaty_on_european_union_en.pdf

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/treaty-tightrope-the-social-chapter-what-it-is-and-why-conservatives-hate-it-1486124.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-maastricht-debate-major-faces-the-ultimate-challenge-todays-commons-motion-this-house-has-1486484.html

http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/2/228.extract

https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/scandinavian_political_studies/article/view/13222/25191

http://www.yofest.eu/

25 years of fun. 25  years of cultural exchange. 25 years of Summer University (SU) Project. This is a whole life for people like me… and even more for some newbies. This is a great achievement and for sure deserves to be commemorated. Thus it was not surprising to see an email about a 25th anniversary booklet for this project. And the work starts here. Captain of the ship is Hara Kogkou –  the person whose smile represents the SU and surely there is no person who knows more SU stories than her, being a Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) member, and loving this project for years. How does she do it and why she decided to dedicate a few more months to the SU project – keep reading the article and you will find out.

Our idea is to have the SU 25th anniversary booklet digitalised in order to be able to provide it to everybody but of course printed for externals.

According to the plan the booklet will be ready by the end of January 2013. As mentioned we already have a great big team filled with motivation to create this booklet. Currently we are doing a survey and asking all the members (new and old ones) to take part in it. We are really happy as we have already received more than 650 responses and with an even larger number the booklet will be even greater. So, as you can see, every person can play a role in the creation of the booklet and we are waiting for more people to fill out this questionnaire.

I became editor-in-chief of SU 25th anniversary booklet because I am intrigued by the Summer University Project, because I was devoted to it for the past two years as the Project Manager of SUCT and because I want to show other people about our “miracle” that is called Summer University – how a life can take a different path in just two weeks, and of course in order not to forget from where it started and how it is now.

The concept of the booklet is to include stories from the past, the history and the evolution of the Summer University throughout the years, interviews from the people that played key roles in creating the SU project. We are already full of ideas.

After being Project Manager of the SU Project for two years, to do this booklet for me is like a gift; it is like showing non-AEGEE people what we are working and striving for, to show why we are so passionate about this project and how it can change a young person’s life and perspective. It is my way of saying thank you.

To prepare the booklet we will need the help of the Network by different means – by providing us material such as photographs, experiences, stories… everything is crucial and everything is welcome! Maybe for some people a Summer University changed their life, maybe they felt in love with a city and moved there after the SU or maybe they even fell in love with another person, or a culture. Maybe for somebody the SU brought them closer to the European level of AEGEE which got them more actively involved in AEGEE, who knows. So many SU’s take place year after year so for sure there are some great stories out there to be told. If you have great stories to tell, then we are waiting for you!

Of course I could not manage to do it alone and thus there is already a team composed of Pavel Zbornik and Zsófia Komáromi who help from the side of the Comité Directeur, Patricia Anthony (AEGEE-København) is editor of the booklet, newly elected Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) member Gerardo García Díaz (AEGEE-Oviedo) has agreed to help with the design, and many more who were more than willing to help and be part of the anniversary booklet! Of course, I am not forgetting the help of Les Anciens!

Thank you Hara, and we wish you good luck!

Written by Liliya Buyukliyska, AEGEE-Sofia