The Central European Academy and the Ferenc Mádl Institute for Comparative Law organised an international conference "Maastricht 30", which took place in Budapest on 29-30 June 2023.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, it is worth taking a look at the political discourse that defined the era and to examine what goals were achieved during this exceptional period of history. Two main objectives were defined at the time: on the one hand, the continuous internal deepening of integration, including the creation of Economic and Monetary Union, made possible by the construction of the single internal market, and on the other, the doctrine of continuous geographical growth, i.e. the accession of new Member States.
At the conference, these objectives were discussed under five headings, also related to the political discourse of the time: (1) constitutional identity versus "ever closer union"; (2) the future of EMU; (3) the dilemmas of geographical enlargement, i.e. where are the final geopolitical limits of EU enlargement; (4) institutional reforms in the context of the Future of Europe conference; (5) an assessment of the EU's energy policy.
