Members Of European Economic Community Research Articles

Mediterranean Farmers and Alternative Europes: Resistance, Europeanisation and CAP Reforms in Italy and France (mid-1970s to mid-1980s)

This article explores the active participation and, in some cases, resistance of farmers’ associations in Italy and France to European integration from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The article examines, firstly, how Italian associations became active, due to their faltering relationship with the Christian Democrats, in searching new forms of political influence through more radical methods of mobilisation. Secondly, through the case of the so-called wine war between France and Italy, the article reveals how resistance to European Economic Community (EEC) reform and even other EEC member states could lead to forms of Europeanisation: exchanges between European organisations reflected shared resistance to specific policies, creating new arenas for collaboration. The analysis of the French–Italian case also offers an opportunity to explore the contrast between agriculture in the Mediterranean and northern countries in the EEC, showing complex Europeanisation dynamics in which both solidarity and competition become evident. Challenging the notion of a ‘permissive consensus’, this article aims to dismantle the notion of a conflict-free past in the history of European integration. In this regard, it underscores the multifaceted nature of European integration, marked by continual clashes and compromises, and provides a critical lens for interpreting the present state of the Brussels institutions.

Squeezed between external trade barriers and internal economic problems: Bulgaria’s trade with Denmark in the 1970s

ABSTRACT This paper investigates Bulgaria’s trade strategy towards the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1970s: a decade of intensified economic exchange between East and West thanks to détente and, simultaneously, of growing trade barriers due to the consolidation of the EEC’s Common Market. The successes and failures of Bulgaria’s endeavours are discussed through a study of economic cooperation with Denmark before and after its accession to the EEC in 1973. The main argument is that while Bulgarian economic policy focused on the rising regulatory impediments to trade with EEC members, it neglected the structural deficiencies of Bulgarian export production. Thereby, Bulgarian state officials strove to resolve foreign trade problems through diplomatic negotiations over customs regulations instead of advancing domestic economic reforms . This argument is supported by analysis of intergovernmental economic negotiations and trade deals between Bulgaria and Denmark during the 1970s. It highlights the different ways in which Bulgarian trade envoys in Copenhagen and top officials at home evaluated recurrent problems in accessing the Danish market and formulated solutions for these problems. Thus, instead of tackling internal structural problems, the blueprints for Bulgaria’s foreign trade focused on external foes, namely trade discrimination against socialist countries.

Britain, European Economic Community Enlargement, and ‘Decolonisation’ in Hong Kong, 1967–1973

ABSTRACTPoliticians and businesspeople in Hong Kong paid close attention to British efforts to join the European Economic Community (EEC). The British colony was exempted from most tariffs in Britain, an arrangement that could not survive EEC enlargement. EEC members were unwilling to extend to Hong Kong, a significant exporter of manufactured goods, the same trade preferences offered to other dependent territories. Instead, the unique provision the EEC made for the colony was limited inclusion into their Generalised System of Preferences scheme, which granted tariff concessions to developing countries. Historians of Hong Kong have shown how the colony experienced British imperial withdrawal in a number of ways, despite remaining under British rule until 1997. This article demonstrates that an important element is missing from this account: how global economic shifts led to an erosion of imperial ties. EEC enlargement from 1973 entailed the end of Hong Kong's privileged access to the British market, but for the colony, the importance of imperial economic links had already faded. At the same time, an assessment of Hong Kong's capacity to pursue favourable terms of trade in global markets independently from Britain offers a more tentative conclusion of the extent of the colony's autonomy.

Avant Lomé: la France, l’Afrique anglophone et la CEE (1961–1972)

Before the Lomé Convention (1975) was signed between the European Economic Community (EEC) and 46 African Caribbean and Pacific States, the EEC member states had to deal with the African members of the Commonwealth. Among the Six France was in a peculiar position, wishing to maintain a special relationship between the EEC and the French-speaking African states and to enlarge its relations with other regions of the Third World. This article, based on an examination of the French Foreign Ministry Archives and the Papiers Foccart, aims to investigate the prehistory of the relations between the EEC and the English-speaking African states. It analyses the French role in the debate, outcomes and consequences of the first agreements signed by the European Community with Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. To this aim it will focus on the negotiations between the EEC and the African states, but also on the debate which took place in some international organisations on the Yaoundé Convention, in order to understand to what extent these discussions paved the way for the evolution of the EEC Development Policy during the 1970s.

Adolescence in Modern Irish History. Edited by Catherine Cox and Susannah Riordan

This edited collection emanated from a 2011 workshop and represents the first volume to address the history of youth/adolescence in modern Ireland. With this is mind, the editors have wisely chosen to provide a solid and expansive introduction charting the development of the historiography in Ireland, the conceptualization of adolescence, and the trajectory of the volume from “affective revolution,” to the emergence of the teenager. To date, the historiography has tended to focus on the history of education, child welfare, “juvenile delinquency” and criminality, and the emergence of youth culture in the sixties. It has been an urban history primarily, with significant gaps in the rural experience. Institutionalization has been a central trope, due in part to the scandals that emerged in the 1990s surrounding Ireland’s industrial and reformatory school system. The nine chapters in this volume and the introduction go a sufficient way to address this neglect. Many of the themes in the collection are referred to in the final chapter by Mary E. Daly, which provides a broad contextual framework for the preceding work. Daly argues that Ireland is distinctive in certain ways when looking at the history of youth/adolescence. She highlights two issues in particular—the lack of an industrial revolution (and as a result the primacy of the rural/family economy) and the impact of war and revolution from 1914–23. Ireland’s demographics are also referred to—an exceptionally low rate of marriage and high birth rate, as well as the continued emigration of thousands of young men and women until the 1960s. By 1973 when Ireland became a full member of the European Economic Community (EEC), compulsory schooling, urbanization, and outside cultural influences meant “the lives of Irish adolescents were not noticeably dissimilar from those of adolescents in other EEC member states” (213).

The Embarrassments of Irish Nationalist Commemorations for Western Europe, from Fontenoy in 1907 to the Easter Rising in 1966

The commemorations of the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745 and the Easter Rising of 1916 were major events for Irish nationalism and separatism. For Western European governments of the European Economic Community (EEC), however, they could cause serious diplomatic embarrassments in their relations with the United Kingdom. The same commemorations could also be politically manipulated. Much depended on the contemporary international situation. This article examines how these two commemorations were perceived and handled by the governments of France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and (West) Germany from 1907 until 1966, and also by the Irish government notably at the time of its application for EEC membership. The article also shows how the diplomatic corps of the EEC member states based in Dublin analysed the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966 and formed the opinion that the event was not a grandiose display of Irish nationalism or anti-British sentiment.

1990 EC directive may become driving force

Amid the political turmoil surrounding the establishment of the European Economic Community (EC), a relatively unknown EC directive has assumed a growing importance for vendors of computer hardware and software. In May 1990, the Council of European Communities issued Directive 90/270, which lays down "minimum safety and health requirements for work with display terminals." The Annex to the directive states that, among other requirements, software must be suitable for the task, easy to use, and adaptable to the operator, and that the principles of software ergonomics must be applied. In spite of this somewhat ambiguous wording, EC member nations are required to adopt laws, regulations, and administrative provisions that comply with the directive by 31 December 1992.

Effects of the Single European Act on EEC Diversification

The 1987 Single European Act's intended goal is to unify European member nations. The Act provides a series of steps over time that dismantles the various trade barriers between the European Economic Community (EEC) members. The main economic reforms, reduced trade and increased capital flows, combine disparate goals and government policies to enhance the economic efficiency of EEC members. The EEC economic system is therefore changing to create a globally competitive community of nations with efficient internal trade and capital markets.

Recipient Needs and Donor Interests in the Allocation of EEC Aid to Developing Countries

ABSTRACT This paper examines the distribution of aid from the European Economic Community (EEC) to developing countries. The first part presents an overview of the magnitude and composition of EEC aid. Then a model of aid allocation is proposed using data from the 1975–81 period. The empirical results indicate that donor interests are more important in the aid allocation process than recipient countries' need for aid. While this result is common in studies of bilateral aid, the opposite is usually held to be true for aid from multilateral sources. The results also suggest that the interests of all EEC members are not equally served by the aid allocation process. In particular, French political interests appear to be dominant—a situation which may arise because of French control over the EEC's administrative machinery for allocating aid.

Taxation and Small Business in the EEC: So Me Facts and Some Issues

Graham Bannock is an independent consultant with a special interest in small firms, having previously been managing director of the Economist Intelligence Unit and ealier director of research for the United Kingdom's Bolton Committee on Small Firms. The structure of the tax system and the rates of taxation are an important -some would say the most important -element in the environment for small business. The paper discusses why this is so, selectively reviews facts on the tax systems in the ten European Economic Community member states collected together in a recent EIU study and briefly touches upon the policy issues which emerge. The author gratefully acknowledges permission from The Economist Publications Ltd. to reproduce material from the EIU study.

The lomé convention: Towards perpetuation of dependence or promotion of interdependence?

The conclusion on 28 February 1975 of the Lome Convention between (the original forty-six risen to sixty) African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, and the nine European Economic Community (EEC) nations has no doubt been an important event in world development cooperation. This Convention was intended to symbolise a new era in relations between industrialised countries of Western Europe and the Third World an era in which there would be a real cooperative partnership between the two parties. Hence Lome has been hailed by many observers as a prime example of successful North-South cooperation. The scheme is much more comprehensive than either the Yaounde Conventions of 1963 and 1969, or the Arusha Convention of 1969 covering as it does a greater number of issues and for the first time bringing together into a single negotiating bloc a group of developing countries with widely differing cultural, geographical, and political backgrounds. The Lome Convention has, however, provoked a varied reaction'ranging from the positive and laudatory to the negative and critical.' Its merits and demerits have been a subject of continuing debate among scholars in recent years, some of them commenting favourably on the benefits that will accrue to the ACP countries from 'the willingness of EEC member states to pursue policies helpful to these countries.' William Zartman describes Lome as 'a welcome development', and as the latest step in a slow historical process from colonial domination towards mutual cooperation and equality.' Isebill Gruhn similarly sees Lome as a progressive document which constitutes an 'inching towards interdependence'.2 While attempting to offer a balanced evaluation of the Lome regime, Ellen FreyWouters would tend toreflect this view in her recent study when she emphatically concludes that the Lome Convention 'is more than an enlargement of old colonial links' as it 'marks a step forward toward a new system of relations' between the EEC and ACP countries. This relationship, she remarks, 'can no longer be characterised as neocolonialist.'3 On the other hand, a growing number of critical scholars have sought to mute such enthusiasm by arguing that whilst Lome may appear to be progressive to the

INTRA-INDUSTRY TRADE AND MARKET STRUCTURE IN THE INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES *

DURING the 1960s several observers noticed that liberalization among the industrial countries was accompanied not by the competing down of inefficient manufacturing industries but rather by an expansion of exports from practically every industry.' Among the European Economic Community's members the exporters dominant before mutual tariff reduction actually lost market share as the liberalization took place, and the patterns of commodities exported by the Community's members became more rather than less similar. The name trade was bestowed on the growing bilateral exchange of similar goods that gave rise to these patterns of trade. It came to be realized, though, that a lot of intra-industry in manufactures takes place, and that it is not just a transient result of liberalization. Among industrial countries, for example, there is no obvious relation between the amounts of intra-industry in manufactures and the proportional liberalization of that has recently taken place.2 Similarly, rapidly growing intra-industry has been found among a diverse population of industrial countries that includes some notable stragglers in the march toward freer trade.' And its growth is widely spread across industrial sectors, at least within manufacturing.4 Concurrently, it was pointed out that intra-industry could be a long-run equilibrium consequence of several configurations of market structure. Trade controls might in fact not be the most potent factor explaining variations in intra-industry

A Cross-sectional Study of EEC Trade with the Association of African Countries

EIGHTEEN African countries became associate members of the European Economic Community (EEC) under the treaty of Rome in 1958 and their associate member status was subsequently renewed at the respective Yaounde Conventions in 1963 and 1969. As associate members, the African nations have received tariff preferences for their exports in the EEC market along with economic aid and technical assistance, while the EEC has generally pressed successfully for preferential treatment of its exports in associate country markets.1 The present study employs a variant of the cross-sectional trade flow model developed by Linnemann (1966) to test for the existence of a statistically significant effect of the association agreement on trade between the African Associate countries (AAC) and the EEC. By using dummy variables to represent the trade preference between EEC and AAC members and by calculating cross-sectional equations for African trade with the developed countries for each year of the period 1958-71, the study is able to trace the cumulative effect of the agreement on the exports of both AAC and EEC members. For each year of the association period, the cross-section regression results are in turn used to estimate the dollar value of gross trade creation (GTC) for both the AAC and the EEC; using GTC as defined by Balassa (1967) as the total increase in trade among members of a trading community brought about through economic integration, regardless of whether the additional trade replaces domestic production (trade creation) or whether it replaces nonmember exports (trade diversion).2 The EECAAC agreement actually constitutes a series of custom unions between each of the respective AACs and the EEC as a whole. By using separate equations to cover EEC exports and AAC exports, respectively, the study is able to estimate GTC for the respective groups of countries for each year of the study period.

Political Aspects of Transnational Business Collaboration in the Common Market

Transnational business collaboration is a phenomenon that can be observed in many parts of the world. It may assume special significance when it is carried out on an extensive scale within an international region where an economic integration scheme is being implemented, as is die case in the European Economic Community (EEC). And indeed, a rising trend of transnational business collaboration within the EEC has become manifest during the last decade. Focusing on certain political aspects of this collaboration, this article will I) examine the principal objectives pursued by collaborating enterprises 'that require for their attainment action by the national authorities of the EEC member countries or by the community institutions and 2) make a preliminary assessment of the effect that trans-national business collaboration within the Common Market might have on political integration.

Council of Europe

Third part of the fourteenth session: The Consultative Assembly held the third part of its fourteenth ordinary session on January 14–18, 1963, under the presidency of Mr. Per Federspiel (Danish Moderate Liberal).1 Mr. Piccioni, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, made a statement summarizing the activities of the Committee of Ministers since the second part of the fourteenth session. Commenting on various points of the Assembly's agenda, Mr. Piccioni noted the desire to examine ways of reactivating the Council of Europe. Although he was opposed to any structural modifications, he welcomed the proposal whereby the Committee of Ministers should inform the joint committee of the Assembly and the Committee of Ministers of its observations on recommendations which it rejected. On the general question of European integration, he emphasized the importance of Britain's negotiations for membership in the European Economic Community (EEC). He reaffirmed his country's desire to maintain the solidarity of the existing members of EEC but stressed Italy's constant efforts to seek a successful outcome to the negotiations.

The Canalization of the Moselle and West European Integration

URING protracted negotiations between members of European Economic Community (EEC) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA), during De Gaulle's attempts at disentanglement in Algeria, and during East-West struggle over future of Berlin, a Franco-German engineering project in a quiet corner of Europe has been proceeding almost unnoticed. Yet when it is completed late in 1963, canalization of Moselle River (Fig. 1) may have an economic impact on Western Europe equal to addition of a medium-sized nation to EEC, loss of Saharan oil to France, or severance of trade with Eastern Europe. The political effects are no less significant. The project should become one of strongest bonds uniting EEC, with or without EFTA. For French, it intensifies an already enormous commitment of resources in the East (the Lorraine industrial region) and acceptance of a dependence on Rhine and Ruhr that has been unthinkable since Napoleonic times.

Western European Union

The Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) held the second part of its seventh ordinary session in Paris on December 11–15, 1961, under the presidency of Mr. Arthur Conte (French Socialist). In addition to discussing the state of European security, the Assembly debated questions concerning Berlin and the agricultural problems involved in the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community (EEC). The debate on agriculture was concerned with the implementation of recommendation 53, adopted in November 1960, in which the Assembly had called for negotiations for the accession of the United Kingdom to the EEC as a full member. Mr. Sicco Mansholt, vice-chairman of the EEC Commission, stated that if the United Kingdom entered the EEC, her agriculture would not have to overcome any exceptional difficulties which would justify a longer transition period than that of the six original members. He stated that this conclusion had been reached after a detailed comparison of relative prices and outputs in the United Kingdom and the six members of EEC. The Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, presented by Mr. Hubert Leynen (Belgian Social Christian), calling upon the seven member governments of WEU to spare no effort to insure the success of the Brussels negotiations.

Western European Union

The Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) held the second part of its fifth ordinary session in Paris from November 30 to December 3, 1959. The President of the Assembly Mr. Victoria Badini- Confalonieri (Italian Liberal), opened the first sitting with a tribute to the late John Edwards, following with an examination of the history and functions of WEU in the light of proposed changes of the organization's functions. He stated that the European Economic Community (EEC) of the Six and the Union of the Seven were complementary, rather than incompatible, as WEU's Council of Ministers could become a ”clearing house” for relations between the Six and the United Kingdom, the only member of WEU that was not a member of EEC. He expressed the hope that at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers the question of the new political role of WEU would be the chief matter considered. Mr. Giuseppe Pella, Italian Foreign Minister, speaking as Chairman-in-Office of the WEU Council, stated that the Council of Ministers attached great importance to coll-laboration with the Assembly; noting that relations between the Council and the Assembly had improved since the creation of the organization, he went onto list areas that the Council had considered or was considering which concerned both organs, namely: 1) measures which would allow the Assembly a more direct share in the adoption of its budget; 2) the area of armament production; 3) the search for permanent offices for WEU; and 4) the question of transferring WEU's exercise of social and cultural activities to the Council of Europe. Regarding the latter, he stated that, in agreeing to the transfer, the Council wished merely to reduce duplication and not to detract from the Union's independence. Finally, he stressed that consultation among the Six should lead to political consultation with the United Kingdom in the WEU context, rather than ruling it out.

European Free Trade Association

At a meeting of senior officials of the seven-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) held in London, February 12–13, 1960, the organization was reported to have chosen Geneva as the site of its headquarters, after the French government had informed it that it could not accept the proposal that Paris be the site, since France was not a member of EFTA. Although EFTA did not officially come into being until May 3, 1960, with the deposition of the seven instruments of ratification with the Swedish government, the preparatory meeting of its Ministerial Council was held in Vienna on March 11–12, devoting itself principally to an examination of the most important problem facing this new organization—namely, its relations with third countries, especially those of the European Economic Community (EEC). The member states declared their readiness to discuss with the EEC members the possible extension to the Six and to other countries, subject to reciprocity, of the 20-percent tariff reduction effective among themselves on July 1, 1960, and reaffirmed the importance of a continuation of European economic cooperation within the framework of the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), of which they would like to see the United States and Canada become full members. Also in March, EFTA members reportedly received the assurance of the United States government that its approval of a recent decision of EEC, concerning the reduction of its external tariff on July 1, 1960, did not reflect any animosity toward the Association.