The IGC - where will it end?

Abstract

For many years changes to the text of the EC Treaty were few and far between, and tended to be highly specific in their nature, such as the 1965 Merger Treaty leading to a common institutional structure for the three Communities, and the 1975 Budgetary Treaty. Indeed between the signature of the original EEC Treaty in 1957 and that of the Single European Act in 1986, no change was made to the substantive policy provisions of that Treaty. The Single European Act however combined institutional reform with amendments and additions to the substantive provisions of the Treaty, providing for the completion of the internal market by the end of 1992 and conferring other express new competences on the Community; it also introduced express provisions on Political Cooperation which fell outside the normal Community legislative process and fell outside the jurisdiction of the European Court. [excerpt]