1991: Maastricht criteria for a European currency

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10 december 1991

The European Union is born in Maastricht

On 9 and 10 December 1991, Dutch minister-president Ruud Lubbers welcomed his European colleagues in Maastricht’s Provinciehuis. This striking building, home to the Limburg provincial government, is located on an island in the River Maas. It was here that the leaders of the Twelve gathered to approve the Maastricht Treaty, or, to give its official title, the Treaty on European Union. For Lubbers, this was the perfect ending for the Dutch presidency.

The signing on 10 December 1991 marked a big step forward for the Twelve. What had begun in 1957 as a plain customs union was now referred to in grand terms as a ‘European Union’. This was, admittedly, based on three distinct ‘pillars,’ but it still represented a huge step forwards. So what were the main points in the Treaty that was approved on that island in the Maas?

• ·A single European currency. Economic and monetary union (EMU) was seen as the crowning achievement of the internal market. The plan was to introduce monetary Union in three phases with completion on 1 January 1999 at the latest. Countries could only belong to EMU if they satisfied four criteria: low inflation, a low interest rate, a low national debt (not greater than 60 percent of the gross domestic product, or GDP) and a low ratio of government deficit to GDP (not greater than 3 percent). The famous ‘Maastricht criteria’ were incorporated into the treaty to satisfy German demands. Countries with a large government deficit were thus forced to make deep spending cuts. The United Kingdom and Denmark insisted on the right to keep their currencies out of the EMU.
• ·The Community would take on new policy areas and reach more decisions on the basis of majority voting. Now that the single market was almost completed, the Community could extend the scope of its policies. It gained responsibility for policy areas such as trans-European networks (transport, telecommunications, energy), industrial policy, consumer protection, education, youth and culture. Social policy, which was a non-starter for the British (at least under prime minister John Major), was dealt with in a separate protocol.[1]  Majority voting was extended to new policy areas (such as environmental legislation), even though it was still doubtful whether this would be sufficient in the event of new states joining the EU (which, everyone now agreed, was going to happen very soon).
  
• ·      The European Parliament was granted the right of codecision. A new codecision procedure was introduced in several policy areas (internal market, consumer protection, etc) which allowed Parliament to make decisions on the same footing as the Council.[1] This was greeted with enthusiasm by members of the European Parliament. At the same time, MEPs were given a role in the appointment of the European Commissioners for the first time.
• ·      The introduction of the idea of European citizenship, which defined the rights and duties of nationals of the member states, including the right of free movement across the entire EU, the right of residence, the right to vote in local and European elections in the country of residence, diplomatic and consular protection provided by other member states when a citizen is outside the EU in a country where their own country has no representation, the right to petition the European Parliament and the right to submit complaints to a European ombudsman. All of these measures were introduced by the Spanish prime minister, Felipe Gonzales, a fervent supporter of European integration.
• ·The development of a common foreign and security policy (known as the second pillar), with member states agreeing “to safeguard the common values, fundamental interests and independence of the Union.” This assigned responsibility for supervising the common policy to the European Council and included the provision that the common foreign policy could eventually lead to a common defence policy. This was the first time that terms like these had been uttered since the failure of the European Defence Community back in 1954. 
• ·The development of home affairs and justice (the third pillar). Member states agreed to co-operate in areas such as asylum, immigration and anti-terrorism, although each decision required a unanimous vote (as was the case with the second pillar).

The Maastricht Treaty may have been a great leap forward, but there was one serious problem – it was virtually unreadable. Perhaps this was why the treaty, which the Twelve happily signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, only scraped through the ratification process by the skin of its teeth. It finally came into force on 1 November 1993.