UnCommon Pretensions

Abstract

Superficially, the economics of Western European integration have been dominated by political factors. This is no more than should be expected. The political element in economic policy is not reduced simply by its translation to an international level. If anything it is increased, especially if issues of national sovereignty are involved. Besides, the main events of the formation and enlargement of the European Economic Community were more political than most international economic arrangements since the war. In 1961 the first President of the EEC Commission stated bluntly, ‘we are not in business at all — we are in politics’.¹ Yet this was hardly a revelation. A political drive linked the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the abortive proposals for a European Defence Community in 1954, and the establishment of the EEC and Euratom in 1957. From the start political factors were stressed, not disguised.