ABSTRACT
The “Friends of the Presidency” group at the Council involved a variety of Member States whose findings were presented by the Italian European Union (EU) Presidency almost at the same time as the UK. The UK Government was progressively and inevitably getting closer to organising an EU referendum by mid-2017 at the latest, as announced by Prime Minister Cameron on 23 January 2013 - in the event of a Conservative majority in the 2015 elections, as it was the case. Realising that a full Intergovernmental Conference was not feasible to meet the self-imposed UK timescales it proposed a political agreement and a legally binding “EU reform” agreement – paradoxically based on International Public Law. The Commission Communication tabled in October does constitute the state of the art on this question as far as the EU institutions are concerned. EU policymaking is like energy; ideas never evaporate they just get reincarnated in new shapes.
