The Construction of Europe

Stephen Martin* The fourteen essays that constitute this work provide a coherent review of the past and present of the European Community, and consider some of its possible futures. Werner Abelshauser and Richard Griffiths offer separate perspectives on the precursors of the European Community. Abelshauser argues that comparison of the fates of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Defense Community demonstrate the dominance of political over economic considerations in the integration process. Griffiths considers the stillborn European Political Community, many of the proposed features of which, somewhat transformed, were embodied in the Treaty of Rome. Both suggest that as a practical matter a coming together of French and German interests has been a precondition for advances in European integration. Stephen Martin and Andrew Evans discuss the development of the Com munity's Structural Funds, first envisaged as tools to smooth the transition from a collection of regional economies to a continent-wide single market, now increasingly seen as devices to guide adjustment to long-term struc tural problems. Stuart Holland emphasizes the role of the Structural Funds as one element in a broad range of strategies to ensure social and economic cohesion as the Maastrict Treaty ushers the European Union into the next stage of its development.

Klappentext

The Construction of Europe contains a multidisciplinary treatment of the development of the European Union. Special attention is given to the political economy of European unification, including precursors of the EEC, the role of French--German relations, the Structural Funds, and the part played by the European Commission. There are also discussions of the implications for Europe of German reunification and the prospects raised by the possibility of expansion into Eastern Europe. The legal structure of the European Community is also examined, in contributions that deal with administrative law, guidelines, competition law, and feminist legal theory.

Inhalt
1 Integration à la Carte The Primacy of Politics and the Economic Integration of Western Europe in the 1950s.- 2 Europe's First Constitution: The European Political Community, 19521954.- 3 EC Regional Policy and the Evolution of the Structural Funds.- 4 Economic and Social Cohesion in the 1990's.- 5 The Institutional Dynamics of European Integration: From the Single Act to the Maastricht Treaty.- 6 The New Germany and European Union after Maastricht: The Difficult Way Ahead.- 7 The European Community and Central and Eastern Europe.- 8 The Impact of Systemic Transition on the European Community.- 9 Sources of European Administrative Law.- 10 Soft Law and Institutional Practice in the European Community.- 11 Women and the Law: In Search of an Ever-Evasive Equality.- 12 Price Leadership and Conscious Parallelism.- Appendix A Emile Noël's Contribution to Europe.- Klaus Meyer.- Appendix B Merci, Monsieur Noël.- Marcello Buzzonetti.