1. The Development of European Integration

Abstract

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter begins with analysis of the background to European integration. The focus then shifts to analysis of the Treaties and the principal Treaty revisions from the inception of the European Economic Community (EEC) to the present day. The EEC Treaty is examined, followed by the Single European Act, and the Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Nice Treaties. The discussion continues with examination of the failed Constitutional Treaty and the successful ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The penultimate section deals with the impact of the financial crisis, the refugee crisis, the rule of law crisis, the pandemic crisis, and the Brexit crisis. This is followed by an overview of theories European integration offered to explain its evolution. The UK version contains a further section outlining the basic structure of UK legal relations with EU law post-Brexit.