treaties could not in itself affect the Luxembourg compromise, as a political agreement with no legal basis, let alone a treaty one. Indeed, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared to the House of Commons that it remained. However, such a change to the treaties, duly ratified by all national parliaments, changed the constitutional framework within which the decisions concerned would be taken, and signified at least an intention to take majority votes more frequently. There would, after all, be little point in modifying the treaties if this were not the case. The Council followed up this treaty change with an amendment to its internal Rules of Procedure. After a year of negotiations, it agreed in 1987 to change its rules to oblige the President-in Office to move to a vote upon the request of the Commission or the representative of any Member State, provided that the request is supported by a simple majority of Member States. The context was also changed by accession of Spain and Portugal to the European Community. It was no longer clear that states seeking to invoke the Luxembourg compromise would have sufficient support in Council to constitute a blocking minority. Following these developments there was reluctance by Member States to risk invoking the compromise and finding it was not accepted. There were even cases in which Member States in the minority, rather than invoke the Luxembourg compromise during a vote, have challenged it in the Court of Justice on grounds of an incorrect legal basis – arguing that an article requiring unanimity should have been used. Gradually, votes were taken on increasingly controversial subjects such as a ban on hormones in meat (leading to a 'trade war' with the United States), permitted radioactivity levels in foodstuffs, rules for trans-frontier television broadcasts, several fishing controversies, foreign aid, and some of the crucial reforms of the CAP. By the time of the negotiation of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991, it was widely recognised that votes would be taken wherever the treaty provided for it. In 1998 the Treaty of Amsterdam introduced the Enhanced cooperation procedure, which allowed a minimum of nine member states to agree to integration within EU structures without other member states being involved (although this is only as a last resort). The procedure has effectively ended the ability of a small minority of member states to veto integration in areas which are supported