The Evolving Community

it gives a context to contemporary events, demonstrating that the current debates on the integration process have a long pedigree, and that ideas such as monetary union are not simply novelties dreamt up by Jacques Delors in the late 1980s;

it puts the Community firmly in the context of other developments within and outside Europe, recognising the significance for the European Community of events such as the end of the Cold War and the unification of Germany;

it highlights the ebbs and flows of the Community, which have coincided quite closely with the low and high points of the European economy since the Second World War;

finally, the stop-start progress of political and economic integration emphasises the unparalleled contribution made by the Court at crucial points. Yet although the Court has been characterised as the ‘engine of integration’, when the events discussed in this chapter are reviewed subsequently in the context of developments in the Community’s legal system which form the main focus of this book, it will be seen that the work of the Court of Justice has not always run parallel to the political and economic evolution of the Treaty. In particular, there often appears to be a lag of some years between the point when work begins towards a new goal in the sphere of politics and correspondingly significant progress in the construction of the Community’s legal framework.