The European Community, Eastern Europe and the USSR

Abstract

Writing on relations and particularly trade relations between the European Community and Eastern Europe and the USSR is nowadays becoming a daring exercise.¹ The frameworks for intra-European relations are very much on the move. This is the case with the relations between the European Community and EFTA countries but even more so as far as the relations between the European Community and Eastern Europe are concerned. Moreover, the various frameworks may have a considerable bearing on each other. The analysis of the relations between the Community and Eastern Europe is furthermore largely influenced on the one hand by the new international political climate in East-West relations which has been prevailing since Gorbachev came to power and on the other band by the domestic political and economic environment in the Eastern European countries and particularly the USSR. It is clearly outside the scope of this chapter to address all these complex issues as such. However, in order to understand the Community’s thinking in this matter they should in one way or another be taken into consideration.