Maastricht Treaty

Germany ratified the treaty on European political and economic union Friday, becoming the 10th of the 12 European Community nations to sign on. Still undecided on the issue are Denmark, whose voters have already refused once to ratify the so-called Maastricht Treaty, and Britain, where opposition is strong. All 12 EC nations, which signed the treaty in the Dutch town of Maastricht last year, must ratify the accord before it takes effect.

The bank, only 6 months old, has no deposits of its own and fewer employees than Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. The imitation leather furniture and potted ficus in the lobby might seem more at home in a neighborhood muffler repair shop. But don't be mistaken: Western Europe's answer to the U.S. Federal Reserve System, the new European Central Bank, is immediately going to be one of the 800-pound gorillas of global finance.

Italy ratified the Maastricht Treaty on European political and economic union with an overwhelming vote of support by its lower chamber of Parliament. The House of Deputies voted 403 in favor and 46 opposed, with 18 abstentions.

Against a backdrop of public confusion and doubt, leaders from 15 of Europe's richest nations are gathering here to launch a long-awaited review of the 1991 treaty that commits them to the lofty goals of economic and political unity. Officially known as the Intergovernmental Conference, or IGC, the review amounts to a de facto constitutional convention on the ties that bind the European Union's member states. It is expected to last at least a year.

Nowhere was Monday's decision by the German Bundesbank to lower interest rates more welcome than in France, where it was widely viewed as an important boost for ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on European union, to be decided in a critical national referendum this Sunday. The Paris stock exchange rallied strongly in the wake of the German announcement; prices rose by nearly 4% by the end of trading.

A Brussels-based lobbyist told a group of medical device makers this week that, despite uncertainty over ratification of a treaty on closer political union in Western Europe, efforts to set standards for their products will proceed as planned. Paul Adamson, a European Community lobbyist for the Health Industry Manufacturers Assn., said that recent financial and political turmoil surrounding the Maastricht Treaty may ironically benefit U.S. companies by simplifying doing business in Europe.

Despite this month's upheaval in their currency markets, the European Community's finance ministers declined Monday to change the Continent's tattered system of fixed exchange rates and pledged to forge ahead with the Maastricht treaty that would unify their currencies by 1999. The ministers of the 12-nation EC specifically rejected suggestions that Germany, France and a handful of smaller countries move quickly to a common currency, leaving the others in the slow lane of a "two-speed Europe."

When Britain took over the European Community presidency in July, Prime Minister John Major's government expected to put its positive stamp on EC activities. But on the eve of a British-hosted EC summit, which opens here in the Scottish capital today, Britain's leadership has been criticized and beset, and Major can only hope to keep the summit from crumbling.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl mounted a full-force defense of the troubled Maastricht Treaty on Friday, warning members of Germany's Parliament that quick ratification is vital to preserve peace and prosperity on the Continent. "The end of the Cold War and communism does not in any way mean that we now need to be less watchful," Kohl told the Bundestag, Parliament's lower house, urging deputies to approve the treaty by year's end. "The war in former Yugoslavia alone is a first warning for us all.

Western Europe's political leaders scrambled Wednesday to maintain their march toward political and economic unity in the wake of the stunning decision by Danish voters to drop out of formation. No matter how well the politicians succeed, however, the Danish vote could leave a long-lasting blot on Europe's ambitions to act as a world-class economic and diplomatic player. More narrowly, it could also interfere with the expansion plans of the 12-nation European Community.

Citizens of the 12-nation European Union begin voting Friday to elect members to their international Parliament, a body that has recently gained important new powers but remains remote and mysterious to most of its constituents. Elections to the 567-seat European Parliament will start with voting in Britain, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. They finish Sunday in the EU's eight other member states.

Leaders of the 12 European Community nations meet here Friday ostensibly to celebrate ratification of the Maastricht Treaty--that much-disputed document that commits most of the Continent's rich nations to an economic, monetary and political union by the turn of the century. But behind the photo-op smiles and champagne, all 12 leaders know there is far less to cheer about than meets the eye.

The final barrier to the controversial treaty on West European economic and political union fell on Tuesday as the highest German court rejected a claim that the accord violated the country's law. Within hours of the ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, German President Richard von Weizsaecker had signed the ratification documents, making Germany the last of the European Community's 12 member nations to formally approve the treaty. The pact is scheduled to take effect Nov.

Publicly expressing doubts about the European unity timetable for the first time, Chancellor Helmut Kohl warned Monday that such a union is the only way to avoid war on the Continent. In a television interview at the Austrian lake where he is vacationing, Kohl acknowledged the possibility that the 1999 deadline for implementing a single European currency may not be met. But the German leader cautioned against any easing of the Maastricht Treaty guidelines for forming a monetary union.

The British government formally ratified the Maastricht Treaty on closer European union Monday when it handed over the necessary documents to the Italian Foreign Ministry. They were delivered by Britain's ambassador in Rome. The ratification takes place in Rome because that is where the first treaty setting up the European Community was signed in 1957.

Prime Minister John Major faced further acrimony within his Conservative Party on Sunday after the press published an off-the-record conversation in which he insulted three Cabinet colleagues. The flap came at the end of a trying week in which Tory rebels joined opposition forces in Parliament to try to derail the Maastricht Treaty on European union. Major had to threaten a national election to restore party discipline and crush the mutiny.

In just under three weeks from today the eyes of Europe will be focused on France. On that Sunday, Sept. 20, voters from the 95 departements and four overseas territories of the French republic will decide whether to ratify the Maastricht Treaty on European political union and a single European currency. French President Francois Mitterrand, 75, has put his long public career on the line in the vote. Few believe the aging French president could survive a strong voter rejection.

The British government formally ratified the Maastricht Treaty on closer European union Monday when it handed over the necessary documents to the Italian Foreign Ministry. They were delivered by Britain's ambassador in Rome. The ratification takes place in Rome because that is where the first treaty setting up the European Community was signed in 1957.

Prime Minister John Major won a dramatic vote of confidence in Parliament on Friday after rebels in his own Conservative Party, cowed by his threat to call a general election, approved the controversial Maastricht Treaty on European union. Major carried the confidence vote in the House of Commons by 339 to 299, a comfortable margin of 40 votes, ending the ratification process for the treaty, which already had been endorsed by Britain's 11 fellow nations in the European Community.

The British government was thrown into turmoil late Thursday when Prime Minister John Major lost a critical House of Commons vote on approval of the Maastricht Treaty on European union. Major immediately called for a vote of confidence in Parliament today that will firmly decide whether the treaty, after 18 months of debate, will be ratified--or whether the government will fall and new elections be called.