Though, I believe that the national ‘Press’ of each member state of the European Union, were somewhat exaggerating the aims of the summit and this as a result, forced the leaders of member states to think about the move very seriously.
Now, the main aim of the summit was to fix a definite date for the achievement of a single exchange rate. The French, along with the Germans were very keen to set an irreversible date for the introduction of a single currency. This is, of course, known as the ‘Euro’ today.
My theory to all of the enthusiasm of the French and German government is one of this. Germany was rather apprehensive about the whole idea of a single currency at first. I believe that as the French government realised that they could perhaps have more influence in the European Union, they persuaded the German government to agree to the treaty, by offering them the chance to have the ECB (European Central Bank) in Frankfurt, Germany.
This delighted the Germans and they suddenly agreed to the terms of the The Massstricht Treaty.
As mentioned before, the whole idea of the treaty was top create ‘an even closer’ Europe. The treaty marked a new phase of life of the European Union, establishing a Union based on three separate sections or know also as ‘pillars’.
The first pillar was designed to create a more formalised Community’s commitment to practice. Also, it extended its scope to cover matters like the growth in power of the European Parliament, for example.
The other two pillars were designed and based on intergovernmental co-operation outside the existing treaties.
British tactics had been influenced by short-term considerations, such as, for example-not upsetting the Tory Right.
Although, some critics say that Britain was unfairly treated , I think this was not the case. British national interests had been protected.
Majority voting, on key issues of foreign policy had not been approved, so that Britain still had the right to act alone if it wished.
This, had dropped the federal style Europe, so that the Conservative party could be sure that they were no longer on an irreversible path to a federal future which, would change the way in which we live today, drastically.
This, however, did not help the whole situation at all. The whole situation infact didn’t help the Tory-right as the Tory party disagreed with the main terms of the treaty. This, subsequently caused high tention throughout Europe, particularly Germany, the so-called ‘Leader of Europe’.
As a result to the scepticism created by opposing parties, the government of France vetoed the entry for the UK