The aim of this special issue is to provide Irish voters with information on the content of the Treaty of Amsterdam, in advance of the referendum in Ireland on May 22nd.
The material is broken down into four main areas:
employment freedom
justice and security
common foreign and security policy citizenship issues.
In each case, a short introductory note is followed by extracts from the Treaty text, taken from the Consolidated Treaties, that is, the text of the existing treaties as modified by the Treaty of Amsterdam. There follow extracts from the European Parliament's resolution of November 19th, 1998. Parliament's resolution was critical of some aspects of the Treaty, and approved of others, as will be clear from the extracts. As a point of clarification, Parliament voted in favour of ratification of the Treaty, by 348 to 101, with 34 abstentions.