How can the new dynamic in European integration politics during the second half of the 1980's be explained? What were the driving forces behind the Single European Act, the achievement of the Single Market, the Schengen agreement, the EC's expansion to the south, and the new steps towards Monetary Union and the Common Foreign and Security Policy? In this book, using numerous discoveries from the archives, historians from 12 countries show how the European Community reacted to the challenges of globalisation and the reform initiatives by Mikhail Gorbachev.

This book examines what the single market actually entails and looks at the other issues and implications of the Single Europe Act. It considers the economic, fiscal. social and political dimensions of European unification.

The collection falls into two parts. The first five articles take stock of the implementation of the Single European Act, which they broadly consider a success, especially in improving efficiency. Wessels considers that progress in legitimacy lagged behind. The contributors in this part call for continuing reform, in the 'right direction', which for them is the extension of majority voting in the Council and of the co-operation procedure. (Source: Journal of Common Market Studies, 33 (10, 1995, page 165.

The objective of the Single European Act is to establish a European market without barriers, thereby enabling the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. To achieve this end the European Commission has put forward some 300 directives to be implemented by 1 January 1993. The contributors to this volume offer a critical evaluation of the likely effects of these measures for Europe as a whole and for the UK economy, in particular.

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L’Acte unique européen, signé à Luxembourg en février 1986, était à la fois la première mise à jour du traité instituant la Communauté économique européenne et la première ébauche du cadre dans lequel devrait s’inscrire un jour l’Union européenne.

Earlier versions of the papers appearing in this volume were delivered at a colloquium organized by the European Institute of Public Administration held in Maastricht on 11 May 1987.