January 2004
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In the aftermath of the events of 1989 and the end of the Cold War, former Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe, and also those with a tradition of neutrality, felt able to apply for EU membership. The Maastricht Treaty had given new impetus and direction ahead of enlargement during the 1990s and it was hoped that the new European Union would eventually embrace Eastern Europe and have a stabilising effect on the new democracies there. In 1996 and 2000 Intergovernmental Conferences (IGCs) were launched to amend the Treaties in order to prepare the EU for enlargement by introducing new institutional and decision-making arrangements in fulfilment of the requirements of earlier Treaty amendments and to amend existing institutional arrangements where weaknesses had been acknowledged. Without reform, it was thought, the EU’s institutions and legislative processes might founder with enlargement, but this reorganisation should also connect with European citizens and remove public confusion and apathy.