BOX 17.1 Common Market Goes to 12

Big decisions rarely come easy when the 10 members of the European Economic Community meet. Last week, they sat for 16 hours, including an all-night session, and in the end they agreed to become 12.

After six years of bargaining, Spain and Portugal accepted terms set down by the Common Market and, assuming the treaties are ratified in all 12 countries, will formally accede to one of the •world's most powerful economic blocs next January. Late yesterday, a threatened veto by Greece was averted when it was accorded $1.5 billion in special aid for its poor rural areas.

The agreement was an important step for the Iberian Peninsula, which 10 years ago lived under dictatorships politically isolated from democratic Western Europe. "We can now get behind us this great frustration, this inferiority complex in international affairs," said Fernando Morin Lopez, Spain's Foreign Minister. It was also a major step for the community, which, far from fostering the unity of Europe, has projected a picture of bickering and paralysis recently.

Much of the frustration in the long negotiation with Spain and Portu­gal arose from the fact that they compete directly with France, Italy and Greece in farming and fishing. On the other hand, Iberian industries are relatively weak and need to adjust to the competition of their more power­ful partners. Transition periods will cover both the industrial and nonindus-trial sectors.

source: New York Times, March 31, 1985.

1992, the EC countries signed in December 1991 at Maastricht, the Netherlands, the Treaty on European Union.This ambitious Maastricht Treaty has the goal to strengthen the political and monetary ties in the Community. It entered into effect on November 1, 1993, whereby the European Community became the European Union. For the remainder of the chapter, I will adhere to this latter usage, except when I refer to specific events before November 1993, for which I will still use the name European Community.

Besides the Council of Europe and the European Union, some other organi­zations contribute to European integration. The European Free Trade Associa­tion (EFTA) was created by West European countries that did not wish to join the European Community. Great Britain was one of the founding members of EFTA, but—as we have seen—in 1973 changed its membership to the European Community. Other founding members of EFTA were the four neutral countries Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Because of their neutrality they did not join the EC but preferred the much looser organized EFTA. In 1992, EC and

17 / EUROPEAN UNION 3S1

EFTA established a common organization, the European Economic Area. As the only EFTA country, Switzerland—by a popular referendum—refused to join the European Economic Area.

Then there is the Western European Union (WEU). It has nine members— all 12 European Union countries with the exception of Denmark, Greece, and Ireland. This organization is mainly concerned with defense issues and works closely with NATO. The close linkage between NATO and the Western European Union could be seen when, during the Yugoslav crisis, ship traffic on the Adriatic Sea was controlled. This operation was done one week by NATO, the next week by the Western European Union, but the entire time by Italy—member of both organizations. If with the Treaty of Maastricht, the European Union increasingly " Jakes on defense issues, the Western European Union may become redundant as a special organization.

: Finally, there is the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. It was held for the first time from 1973 to 1975 in Helsinki and Geneva and then continued on a regular basis at different meeting places. This was the firsi insti-y tutional setting for Western and Eastern European countries to meet. Also included in the Conference were the United States, Canada, and the Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, its membership was taken over by Russia. In the Yugoslav conflict, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe tried ' to play a role, too. When Croatia" was internationally recognized, for example, the European Community referred with regard to the rights of ethnic and national groups to "commitments subscribed to in the framework of the Confer­ence on Security and Cooperation in Europe" (see Chapter 15,L

If the multitude of European organizations sounds confusing, it indeed is. One has to be a real expert to find one's way in the complex organizational network of European integration,. A simplifying factor is, however, that the Euro- < pean Union is by far the most important organization. For the remainder of the chapter, we concentrate on the European Union and refer to the other organiza­tions only when there is a special reason to do so.

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