Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- I A German Solution to Europe's Problems? The Early History of the European Communities, 1950–1965
- Introduction to Part I A New Global Setting
- Chapter 1 The Liberal Project for an Integrated Europe
- Chapter 2 The Rise and Decline of Monnetism
- Chapter 3 More or Less Liberal Europe: The Institutional Origins of Integration
- Chapter 4 All or Nothing? The Founding of the EEC and the End of an Era, 1958–1966
- Conclusion to Part I Needed: A New Integration Scenario
- II From Embedded Liberalism to Liberalism, A Step Forward: European Integration and Regime Change in the 1970s
- III Seeking the New Horizon: Integration from the Single European Act to the Maastricht Treaty
- IV A False Dawn? Challenge and Misdirection in 1990s Europe
- Envoi
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 4 - All or Nothing? The Founding of the EEC and the End of an Era, 1958–1966
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- I A German Solution to Europe's Problems? The Early History of the European Communities, 1950–1965
- Introduction to Part I A New Global Setting
- Chapter 1 The Liberal Project for an Integrated Europe
- Chapter 2 The Rise and Decline of Monnetism
- Chapter 3 More or Less Liberal Europe: The Institutional Origins of Integration
- Chapter 4 All or Nothing? The Founding of the EEC and the End of an Era, 1958–1966
- Conclusion to Part I Needed: A New Integration Scenario
- II From Embedded Liberalism to Liberalism, A Step Forward: European Integration and Regime Change in the 1970s
- III Seeking the New Horizon: Integration from the Single European Act to the Maastricht Treaty
- IV A False Dawn? Challenge and Misdirection in 1990s Europe
- Envoi
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In 1958 the European Economic Community “hit the blocks running,” exploded off the mark and then stumbled, not once or even twice but repeatedly – which might have been expected of someone who, having barely learned to walk, tried to sprint. By 1965 it was staggering and never reached the finish, because no one could find the line. Broken off by confused referees, the event would be scheduled to resume once the runner had better command of his feet and knew better what he was doing. The initial phase of the Community's history opened with a burst of energy and idealism, almost immediately encountered unexpected problems that tripped it up, and ended with a change in rules whose significance was at first not completely clear to anyone but that was necessary for integration to resume. The strange tale makes sense only in retrospect.
The founding of the EEC was to have launched a new era of impressive accomplishments, but in fact it occurred at the end of an old era and failed to meet expectations. Even so, the first period in its history was not devoid of results. Its greatest single achievement was the accelerated elimination of tariffs and quotas and the application of a common schedule of external duties over a period of nine instead of twelve years. A customs union thus came into existence earlier than scheduled.
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- Information
- European Integration, 1950–2003Superstate or New Market Economy?, pp. 53 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003