Under the EU Treaties, changes to the Treaties must be unanimously agreed by
the Governments of all Member States meeting in an Intergovernmental Conference
(IGC). This IGC brought together the Governments of the 15 existing Member
States and of the 10 countries that became Member States on 1 May 2004. The
European Commission participated in the work of the IGC and the European
Parliament was also involved.
The three countries seeking to join the Union, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey,
also took part as observers.
Work in the IGC began under the Italian Presidency in October 2003 on the basis
of the draft Constitution prepared by the Convention. Whilst the great bulk
of the Convention draft was accepted, a number of issues remained outstanding.
Although significant progress was made on a range of issues, it did not prove
possible to conclude the negotiations in December 2003 as had been hoped.
It then fell to the Irish Presidency in the first half of 2004 to take the
work forward. The negotiations were re-launched in March 2004. Following internal
discussions and negotiations, final agreement was reached on 18 June, under
the chairmanship of the Taoiseach.
