M (p. 285-286)

The MAASTRICHT SUMMIT , held in the town of that name in the Netherlands in December 1991, was one of the most decisive meetings of the European Council. It had been preceded by two intergovernmental conferences on political and monetary union. These provided the agenda of the European Council, which, after much often-acrimonious discussion, agreed upon a fundamental revision of the Treaty of Rome in the form of the Treaty on European Union.

MAASTRICHT TREATY : See Treaty on European Union

MACEDONIA , more correctly known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), was part of Yugoslavia from 1919 until its declaration of independence in 1991. The decision on the country’s name drew a hostile response from Greece, which had a province of the same name, and the Greek Government feared that any international recognition of the new ‘Macedonian’ state might encourage a false claim to future territorial expansion. Greek opposition culminated in thwarting the European Union’s (EU) recognition of Macedonia’s independence from Yugoslavia until 1995, by which time the new state had become known as the FYROM. Once recognized, the FYROM concluded a Trade and Co-operation Agreement with the European Communities in 1997. A Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) followed in 2000, along with medium-term financial assistance via the CARDS programme. While keen to join the EU, civil unrest in 2001 put paid to the country’s chances of joining the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in accession negotiations. The FYROM was nevertheless recognized as a potential candidate state. Successful ratification of its SAA in early 2004 was scheduled to be swiftly followed by the submission of an application for EU membership on 26 February 2004. The death in an air crash of the country’s president, Boris Trajkovski, earlier on that day meant that the application was postponed.

HAROLD MACMILLAN (1894–1986), Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957–63, reversed the United Kingdom’s post-war policy of non-involvement in any European venture that went beyond intergovernmental co-operation. In July 1961 he announced that the United Kingdom would seek membership of the European Communities (EC). Several factors influenced this reversal of policy: the unsatisfactory nature of the European Free Trade Association in relation to the EC as an outlet for British trade; the diminishing influence of the United Kingdom in world politics; and the persistently poor performance of the British economy While Macmillan accepted and cited the economic reasons why the United Kingdom should join the EC, he also believed that entry was politically necessary ‘to preserve the power and strength of Britain in the world’. The British application was initially and unilaterally vetoed by France in January 1963.

RAY MACSHARRY (1938–) of Ireland served as Commissioner with responsibility for Agriculture and Rural Development from 1989–92 and was largely responsible for the largest overhaul to that date (since Sicco Mansholt) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). MacSharry’s efforts at reforming the CAP, which had become a huge drain on the European Communities’ (EC) limited budgetary resources need to be set against the wider global effort under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to liberalize world trade and to reduce the levels of protection for the EC agricultural sector. This Round had seen the inclusion of agriculture for the first time, largely at the insistence of the USA. The 1991 MacSharry Plan sought to reconcile the goals of reducing agricultural surpluses and abolishing tradedistorting export subsidies while simultaneously trying to maintain high farm incomes. His plans to reduce farm income support aroused considerable anger in France and Ireland but had the backing of a majority of EC states including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The Council of Ministers (see Council of the European Union ) adopted MacSharry’s proposals in 1992. In 2002 MacSharry was appointed the Irish representative to the European Convention.