Metcalfe, Les. (1993) "Redesigning Europe". In: UNSPECIFIED, Washington, DC. (Unpublished)
Abstract
[From the Introduction]. After a period of rapid progress the European Community has lost momentum and direction. Whereas a short while ago the tide of European integration was running strongly, now the undertow of national interest is once more in evidence. The optimism associated with the Single European Act, the completion of the Single Market and then, the signing of the Maastricht Treaty fuelled expectations of further inexorable advance towards the distant goal of European Union. The revival of anxieties about national sovereignty, precipitated by the Danish referendum in the summer of 1992, dashed these hopes. But perhaps, this was only the catalyst for more deep-seated changes which would have surfaced anyway. The "1992" date for completing the Internal Market, which had come to symbolize the spirit of the drive for European integration, was an anticlimax. Its arrival was overshadowed by other more urgent concerns. On the economic front, recession and rising unemployment coupled with turbulence in foreign exchange markets cast a cloud over the process of monetary integration. On the political front, domestic instabilities in several member states and the continuing uncertainties surrounding ratification of the Maastricht Treaty have almost brought the integration process to a standstill.
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