One of the most problematic issues for acheiving a common position has been the legal basis (Article 100 A of the EC Treaty) of the proposal.
The Commission had defended that this was the correct legal basis. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Council and the Commission agreed that the proposal should be based on Article 152 (4) of the EC Treaty. For the rest, the Council approved the substance of the Commission's proposal with only a few amendments to which the Commission could agree.�