UNIT FIVE FROM COMMUNITIES TO UNION

STEP 6 THE UNION WAS BORN

After the SEA the European integration stepped forward to a formidable era of the four freedoms and the single market. No doubt it was a major success but for many European leaders it was not sufficient. Eager to exploit the situation they sought different ways and directions to expand the European project. The extension happened in a favorable political atmosphere. In 1989-1990 communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and a new wave of hope and enthusiasm spread through the continent, Jacques Delors began his second 5-year term as President of the Commission, the reunited Germany confirmed its European commitment and the agreement to move ahead with the monetary union and the single currency was widely accepted. The Commission proposed a detailed three-stage plan (Delor’s report) for monetary integration that was discussed at the IGC on economic and monetary union. The governments agreed to convene a second IGC to work out a possible political union. The very fact that the economic and political integration went hand in hand raised expectations for a significant change in the EC.