ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to contribute to an understanding of intergovernmental conferences and their relationship with the constitutionalization of the European Union. The practical problems of the intergovernmental conferences, becoming obvious at the latest since the Intergovernmental Conference 1996, would be sufficient to legitimate such an investigation. However, we want to offer a new theoretical perspective on regional political integration processes. The existing approaches provide quite different propositions and conclusions with regard to the role of intergovernmental conferences. For several authors, intergovernmental conferences are the main venue to be investigated. Contrarily, many authors vehemently call into question whether European integration and Europeanization can be understood at all by studying intergovernmental conferences.1 Undeniably, the treaties resulting from intergovernmental conferences codify European Primary Law, and thereby co-determine all legal acts decided under this framework. Understanding the preconditions of their coming into being should be, prima facie, useful for the understanding of their functioning in EU everyday political business. We even argue that the structures and processes of constitutional reform negotiations reveal and reflect the deep structure of the implicit constitution of the European Union.
