European union
European unionEU Crisis
Spring 1999 was supposed to be the European Union's finest hour, as its Economic and Monetary Union finally got underway.
Instead, the union was thrown into turmoil. After a scathing report suggesting corruption and mismanagement in the European Commission, all 20 commissioners were forced to step down.
At the same time negotiations to reform the EU budget were deadlocked, jeopardizing ambitious plans to take in new members from Eastern Europe.
It took a meeting of the EU heads of state and government at the Berlin summit on 24-25 March to resolve the crisis.
EU Budget breakthrough
After 20 hours of non-stop negotiations at the Berlin summit, EU leaders agree on budget reforms - but they are less drastic than originally envisaged.
The EU budget compromise reached in Berlin is an intricate numbers game, hammered out in 20 hours of non-stop talks.
The reforms are not as radical as many politicians had called for. Several countries fought hard to protect their share of EU money and, as all budget decisions have to be unanimous, they could have vetoed any deal going against them.
In typical EU fashion, the compromise budget is mixture of give and take, but there are some clear winners and losers.
As the sun rose over Berlin, a compromise was finally foundMost consumers living in the European Union should be among the winners, as the price of many foods could fall in the coming years.
Spain, Greece, Portugal and France did quite nicely, defending their share of EU subsidies.
The big loser is Germany. The host government tried to get its EU payments reduced by 3bn euros, but for the talks to succeed the Germans had to settle for a cut of just 700m euros.
Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands are the other big contributors to the EU's coffers and they did not achieve the big cuts they hoped for either.
Italy could soon become one of the big spenders. In two years new rules for calculating each country's budget share will sharply drive up the size of Italy's contributions.
The Union's aims and prospects
During its brief history, the European Union has grown greatly in terms of the area it covers - it now numbers fifteen Member States - its political significance and its institutions. The founding Treaties have been revised three times: in 1987 (the Single Act), in 1992 (the Treaty on European Union) and in 1997 (the draft Treaty of Amsterdam).
The ultimate goal of the European Union is "an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen"; the objective is to promote economic and social progress which is balanced and sustainable, assert the European identity on the international scene and introduce a European citizenship...
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