Western Europe's move toward political union entered widespread public debate only at the beginning of the 1990s. In fact, it had begun almost a decade earlier, culminating in 1985 in a bargain that recast the European Community: the Single European Act. At the time, these events hardly received the attention they deserved. However, they marked a historic step from a Community paralysed by lethargy and budgetary squabbling in the ‘Eurosclerosis’ era to one in which the Community proved its worth by creating political structures ‘that will give it a prime role in helping define the post-Cold War world order’, as the Community presented itself to the world at Seville's 1992 Universal Exposition. One key protagonist of the decisive events, in fact one of the architects of the Single Market project, commented as follows: ‘There are turning points in history. Frequently only dimly perceived at the time but later clearly identified. The renaissance of the Community which was launched by the Internal Market Programme and, in its wake, the Single European Act is likely to prove such a turning point’ (Cockfield 1994: 157).

The significant change within the Community during the mid-1980s became evident in two events that find their expression in two documents published by the Community: the Commission's White Paper (CEC 1985) for the European Council (heads of state and governments) regarding the completion of the internal market, and the Single European Act, adopted in December 1985 by the European Council and formally approved by the Council of Ministers (ministers of foreign affairs) on 28 February 1986. The White Paper was a political initiative of the Commission. As such it was not exceptional.