ABSTRACT
The UK negotiating position at Amsterdam which, in general substance, was successfully reflected in the treaty outcome, showed strong continuities with the positions adopted by the leader's working-group (LWG) and reflected in the policy document adopted at the Labour party conference in 1995. But a continuity could also be observed in relation to the positions pursued in the intergovernmental conference (IGC) by the new Labour government after 1 May 1997 and those held by its Conservative predecessors. Policy on the IGC needs also to be assessed in the context of the wider ideological and political transformation that the Labour party had undertaken since 1983. The Conservative party was content for these mechanisms and provisions to apply where UK interests were furthered but not where decisions were taken and enforced which might be inconvenient to the UK government or to broader national interests. Labour's massive losses in the 1999 European elections would accentuate the diminishing enthusiasm.
