The European Union began life as a Community of six member states, concerned primarily with economic integration. Successive enlargements brought the number of members to 15, while successive rounds of treaty reform have expanded the number of policy areas in which the Union is involved. Throughout all of these changes, the basic institutional structures of the early days have remained unchanged. These structures are now showing the strain of this expansion, and decision-making has become more complex and time-consuming. At the same time, the increase in the number of policy areas dealt with at the European level has opened up a gap between decision-making and democratic accountability.

The imminent enlargement of the European Union to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe has brought recognition that extensive reform of the institutions and decision-making system of the European Union is necessary. The traditional method of treaty reform has been the Intergovernmental Conference, or IGC, in which member states bargain behind closed doors to produce a final agreement. The failures of the summits in Amsterdam in 1997 and again in Nice in 2000 to produce a decent reform made even the Heads of State and Government realise that this traditional method would be unable to succeed in preparing the institutions for a future Union of 27 or even 28 members.

The Nice Treaty of 2000 produced political procedures that were even more complicated and inefficient than before. The difficulties faced in achieving even this limited agreement through the traditional method led the Heads of State and Government to launch what became known as the Post-Nice Process: the initiation of an “open and public debate on the future of Europe”.

The Laeken Summit of 14-15 December 2001 represented the first decisive step in the Post-Nice Process. The discussions of the previous year were summed up in the “Laeken Declaration on the Future of Europe”. This Declaration identifies the main questions concerning the political union of Europe and the “Future of Europe” in general. The Declaration also established a Convention to prepare a document to provide answers to these questions. The results of the Convention are then planned to be adopted at another Intergovernmental Conference.