ABSTRACT
European Union intergovernmental conferences as a method to develop European integration seemed to be out of fashion after the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. Political elites, and many scientists, deemed a farewell to intergovernmentalism and the state to be necessary, appropriate and within reach. However, due to the failure of the far-reaching aspirations to establish a ‘transnational constitution’, the intergovernmental mode is not simply back again. Several rounds of enlargement have increased the Union’s heterogeneity and rendered the finding of common positions even more difficult. Therefore, European Union intergovernmental conferences will be an even more interesting research topic in the future.
