The European Community: Of Pessimists and Practical Men

Abstract

IT is difficult to assess the current state of European integration without drifting into paradox or falling into a morass of ambiguous language. From one perspective, the absence of progress towards the fulfilment of the ambitious objectives proclaimed by the great men of the 1950s, and outlined-very sketchily-in the preamble to the Treaty of Rome, is evident. But from another, the slow forward movement of European co-operation, through a variety of channels inside and outside the Community, is undeniable. Looking back at the last decade, it is possible therefore to make a case either for deep pessimism or for cautious optimism. The ambitious attempt to build an Economic and Monetary Union by 1980 failed at its first stage. The Community's response to the interconnected crises of 1973-74 was incoherent; seven years later, it still lacks common policies on external financial co-operation and on energy. The Common Agricultural Policy, apparently impervious to attempts at adjustment and reform, has unbalanced the Community Budget and crowded out other areas of expenditure. The Commission's authority has continued to weaken, in the face of a Council of selfinterested national ministers and the new, prestigious but unavoidably ill-informed, European Council of heads of government. And yet, and yet. Provided the Budget 'settlement' of June 1980 is seen as the first stage in a progressive restructuring of Community revenue and expenditure, the Community will at last have completed the absorption of three new members into a framework built for six-just in time to begin the whole lengthy process again, as three further applicants follow each other down the road to membership. The Community's record of co-operation in external policy has been mixed but on the whole respectable, both in external economic relations and in foreign policy as such. The holding of direct elections for the European Parliament, in 1979, marked a large step forward in the creation of a political community-none the less significant for being later than planned. The launching of the European Monetary System, which moved very rapidly from the 'unrealistic' proposals of late 1977 to the first stage of operation in early 1979, demonstrates that economic and monetary co-operation is still an area of movement. This paradox of stagnation and gloom in many areas of European co-operation and of movement and achievement in others makes it peculiarly difficult to write about the Community at present. On one level developments move very rapidly, so that (for example) the issues in the debate over the Community Budget have shifted quite significantly during the past year, and the character of political co-operation has been