Abstract
There was a remarkable transformation in the European Community in the mid-1980s. It is not clear exactly why this rediscovery of the ideas and objectives of the architects of the Treaty of Rome took place; this ‘relance’ had the air of an addict at his nadir, deciding that he had had enough, renouncing his vice and returning to the straight and narrow by sheer strength of will. Perhaps the answer lies in a combination of political and economic factors:1
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On the political side there was unease about the attitudes and policies of the Americans. Initially, in the 1980s, this stemmed from Reagan’s rather aggressive style of diplomacy which led to fears of an arms race and renewed cold war between the two superpowers. When the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the decade, European integration was further fuelled, somewhat ironically, by the fears of US troop withdrawals.
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More importantly, on the economic side, the deep recession of the early 1980s, the comparative economic decline of Europe, its failure to create jobs at the rate the US seemed able to do, renewed fears about technological backwardness and dependency in Europe, all combined to concentrate European (Community) minds. European industry began to adopt an increasingly European perception and strategy2 and began to see the fragmentation of the European economy as a major problem. There was also a growing consensus in favour of supply-side policies, economic deregulation and budgetary discipline. The combination of all these factors created an irresistible pressure for change and led to two major steps forward in the field of industrial policy: the establishment of the first Framework Programme for EC research and development policies and the single market programme (SMP); the latter was to be seized upon, by proponents of European integration in general, as a flagship for their cause and was, therefore, to develop into much more than a mere component of industrial policy.
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Notes and References
Tsoukalis, The New European Economy (Oxford, 2nd edn, 1993) pp. 47–55.
For example, see W. Dekker, Europe-1990 (Eindhoven 1980). This was a report published by the President of Phillips calling for a programme to create a single market for Europe.
For a detailed analysis see M. Shackleton, ‘The Delors II Budget Package’, Journal of Common Market Studies, The European Community in 1992-Annual Review of Activities, 31 (August 1993).
For further analysis of the IGC and the SEA see J. Lodge, ‘The Single European Act: Towards a new Euro-Dynamism’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 24, no. 3 (March 1986); J. W. De Zwann, ‘The Single European Act: Conclusion of a Unique Document’, Common Market Law Review, 23 (1986) and A. Moravcsik, ‘Negotiating the SEA: National Interest and Conventional Statecraft in the European Community’, International Organisation, 45 (Winter 1991).
Commission of the ECs, Completing the Internal Market: White Paper from the Commission to the European Council (Luxembourg, June 1985). This was produced under the auspices of Lord Cockfield, the then senior British Commissioner; consequently he is widely regarded as, in some sense, the architect of the SMP and so the White Paper often bears his name.
See for example, D. Swann, The Economics of the Common Market (Harmondsworth, 7th edn, 1992) and A. M. El-Agraa, The Economics of the European Community (London, 4th edn, 1994).
P. Cecchini, The European Challenge, 1992: The Benefits of a Single Market (Aldershot, 1988) is the popular version and is the one referred to here, as it is the most readily accessible. A more technical summary is provided by M. Emerson, ‘The Economics of 1992’, European Economy, no. 35 (1988). The full findings are summarised in 16 volumes as Commission of the ECs, Research on the ‘Cost of Non-Europe’ (Luxembourg, 1988). The Cecchini Report remains the only fully comprehensive study of the effects of the SMP with the partial exception of J. Pelkmans and L. A. Winters, Europe’s Domestic Market (London 1988).
Cecchini, The European Challenge, p. 83.
Ibid., p. 97.
Ibid., Table 10.2, p. 101.
Ibid., pp. 104–6.
See A. B. Philip, Implementing the European Internal Market: Problems and Prospects (London: RIIA, Discussion Paper No. 5, 1988).
For example, see B. Burkitt and M. Baimbridge, What 1992 Really Means: Single Market or Double Cross (Bradford: British Anti-Common Market Campaign, 1988) and T. Cutler, C. Haslem, J. Williams and K. Williams, 1992 — The Struggle for Europe (Oxford, 1988).
Commission of the ECs, White Paper... paragraph 19, p. 8, states that ‘the commercial identity of the Community must be consolidated so that our trading partners will not be given the benefit of a wider market without themselves making similar concessions’.
R. E. Baldwin, ‘The Growth Effects of 1992’, Economic Policy, no. 9 (1989).
Jacques Delors, Speech at the College of Europe, Bruges, 20 October 1989.
A useful summary of the negotiations is provided by A. Duff, J. Pinder and R. Pryce (eds), Maastricht and Beyond (London, 1994), ch. 3.
Treaty of European Union, Title V, Article J.4.
Ibid., Agreement annexed to the Protocol on Social Policy, Article 1.
These are internal market rules, free circulation of workers, rights of establishment, general environment programmes, education and training, trans-European networks, health, consumer protection, the research and development framework programme and culture. In all but the last two categories decisions in the Council are taken by qualified majority.
Treaty of European Union, Title II, Articles 198a, 198b and 198c.
Ibid., Title XIV, Article 130d.
Ibid., Title II, Articles 8a to 8e inclusive.
Ibid., Title 2, Article 3b.
A comprehensive account of the problems is provided by Duff, Pinder and Pryce (eds), Maastricht and Beyond, ch. 4.
Changes were required to implement EU citizenship, transfer sovereignty from the Bundesbank to the European Central Bank and to safeguard the sovereign position of the Länder.
Mention should also be made of The Schengen Agreement which became effective, after much delay, in late March 1995. This allows free movement of people in a passport-free zone but only covers 7 of the 15 EU member states.
In principle, either of these will do since it is the ending of intraunion exchange rate fluctuations that is critical. In practice, however, there are important differences, particularly with regard to credibility and confidence.
Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, Report on Economic and Monetary Union in the European Community (Luxembourg: Office for the Official Publications of the ECs, 1989), Section 3, paragraph 25, p. 20.
See, for example, H. Ungerer, O. Evans and P. Nyberg, ‘The European Monetary System — recent developments’, International Monetary Fund Occasional Paper, no. 48 (1986) and A. A. Weber, ‘EMU and asymmetries and adjustment problems in the EMS — some empirical evidence’, European Economy, special edition, no. 1 (1991).
Indeed, this view was encouraged by the Commission which produced what might almost be described as a ‘Cecchini Report for EMU’ in the shape of Commission of the ECs, ‘One Market, One Money’, European Economy, no. 44 (October 1990).
Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, Report.
Treaty of European Union, Protocol on the convergence criteria referred to in Article 109j of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Article 3. The ±2.25 per cent margins that prevailed at the time of the Maastricht summit were not specified and thus ‘normal’ can presumably be equally applied to the ±15 per cent bands that became applicable from August 1993.
In fact the widely held view that this is the latest date by which EMU must begin is not technically correct. The 1 January 1999 start date becomes applicable only if the Council fails to set a start date for EMU by the end of 1997 (Treaty of European Union, Title II, Article 109j, paragraph 4). There is nothing to stop the Council from deciding in 1997 to set a date later than the beginning of 1999. Indeed, given the performance of the ERM since 1992 this may begin to look like a desirable option.
D. M. Andrews, ‘The Global Origins of the Maastricht Treaty on EMU: Closing the Window of Opportunity’, in A. W. Cafruny and G. G. Rosenthal (eds), The State of the European Community, Vol. 2: The Maastricht Debates and Beyond (Boulder, CO, 1993) p. 117.
Financial Times, 7 March 1995, p. 2.
Commission of the ECs, Growth, Competitiveness, Employment — the Challenges and Way Forward into the 21st Century (COM (93) 700 final, 1993).
The stories of their accessions are told in F. Nicholson and R. East, From the Six to the Twelve: the Enlargement of the European Communities (Harlow, 1987) chs 10, 11.
The principal applicant countries are examined on an individual basis in J. Redmond (ed.), Prospective Europeans: New Members for the European Community (Hemel Hempstead, 1994).
For an overview of the motivations and attitudes of the EFTA countries see R. Schwok, ‘The European Free Trade Association: Revival or Collapse?’ in J. Redmond (ed.), The External Relations of the European Community (London, 1992).
For a detailed examination of the Swiss case see R. Schwok, Switzerland and the European Common Market (New York, 1991).
For a detailed survey see J. Redmond, The Next Mediterranean Enlargement of the European Community: Turkey, Cyprus and Malta? (Aldershot, 1993).
Commission of the ECs, Opinion on Malta’s Application for Membership (Brussels: Bulletin of the ECs, Supplement 4/93, 1993) paragraph 44.
This summary is taken from the Federal Trust, The State of the Union: The Intergovernmental Conference of the European Union 1996 (London: Federal Trust, Paper no. 1, 1995), p. 2, which is the first of a series of papers to be produced on the IGC by the Federal Trust (albeit from a federal perspective).
Ibid.
Bulletin of the ECs, no. 6 (1994), point 1.25.
Speech given by Mrs Thatcher at the College of Europe, Bruges, 20 September 1988.
W. Schäuble and K. Lamers, Reflections on European Policy, reproduced in K. Lamers, A German Agenda for European Union (London: Federal Trust and the Konrad Adenauer Stifung, 1994).
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© 1996 David Armstrong, Lorna Lloyd and John Redmond
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Armstrong, D., Lloyd, L., Redmond, J. (1996). The European Union, 1985–1995: the Relance: from the Single European Act to the Maastricht Treaty and European Union. In: From Versailles to Maastricht. The Making of the 20th Century. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24813-1_9
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