Abstract
The following sections outline four main phases in the history of European integration. First, this Article examines the decisive contribution that European integration made in the immediate postwar years to solving the German question and achieving Franco-German rapprochement. Second, it looks at the steps taken in the mid-1950s to launch the broader European Economic Community (“EEC”). The next section explains the difficulties encountered in completing the single market, which were eventually overcome in the late 1980s. The mixed record of the EU, launched in 1993 following ratification of the Treaty on European Union ("Maastricht Treaty"), is then examined. The final sections provide a brief assessment of the achievements of European integration and an overview of the integrative opportunities and individual initiatives that have characterized the process so far.
Recommended Citation
Desmond Dinan,
Fifty Years of European Integration: A Remarkable Achievement,
31 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1118
(2007).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol31/iss5/3