Dealing with Europe

Published in 1999. This book provides a detailed analysis of the positions and strategies adopted by Britain during the 1990-91 Intergovernmental Conference which concluded in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. The main focus is on the questions of British policy coordination and the factors which determined the governments position during the negotiations on European Political Union and European Monetary Union. This is the first major study which reconstructs the mechanisms of British policy making and notes the internal and external factors which shaped the construction of the governments position on the major points of the negotiations. The hypothesis of the book is that domestic politics, primarily through the Prime Ministers aim to maintain the unity of the Conservative Party, was the determining factor in shaping government policy. This view is based upon micro-level empirical analysis undertaken through a methodological approach of historical interpretation.