The Treaty of Amsterdam's Changes to the Common Foreign and Security Policy Chapter and an Overview of the Opening Enlargement Process

The European Union (“Union” or “EU”) is an important actor in the international arena. The Union behaves and acts as a political entity towards the outside world and it is perceived as such. That is certainly the case for international economic relations, where the European Community (“EC” or “Community”) has played a significant role as a major partner in multilateral negotiations for several years now. It is more frequently the case with respect to foreign policy matters, as a result of the choice made by the signatories to the Maastricht Treaty (“Treaty on European Union” or “TEU”) in which the signatories decided to give the Union the means to speak with one voice in world affairs and to conduct effective external action that would not be limited to economic and trade relations.

Against this background, the purpose of this Essay is twofold: first, to provide a summary account of the main changes to the common foreign and security policy (“CFSP”) chapter resulting from the Treaty of Amsterdam (or “Treaty”), and second, to sketch a very general view of the opening enlargement process.