Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T07:23:02.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - From Messina and Rome to the Single European Act

from Part I - Milestones: Treaties and Treaty Changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2023

By
Michael Gehler
Edited by
Mathieu Segers  and
Steven Van Hecke
Mathieu Segers
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
Steven Van Hecke
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Get access

Summary

This chapter presents the relevant integration policy decisions from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Conference in Messina (1955) to the Single European Act (SEA) (1987). It will trace the genesis of the Rome Treaties (1955–7), the foundation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (1958–60), de Gaulle’s policies (1958–65), the development from the Merger Treaty to the Hague Summit (1965–9), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the ‘northern enlargement’ (1973). The question of whether the 1970s were times of ‘Eurosclerosis’ is answered. The path to ‘southern enlargement’, the settlement of the British budget dispute and the departure for reforms follow as further topics, whereby the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and the European Monetary System (EMS) as well as the SEA are dealt with.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the European Union , pp. 60 - 92
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Bussière, E., Dujardin, V., Dumoulin, M., Ludlow, P. N., Brouwer, J. W. and Palmero, E. (eds.). The European Commission 1973–86: History and Memories of an Institution (Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union, 2014).Google Scholar
Deighton, A. and Milward, A. S. (eds.). Widening, Deepening and Acceleration: The European Economic Community 1957–1963 (Baden-Baden and Brussels, Nomos and Bruylant 1999).Google Scholar
Dumoulin, M. (ed.). The European Commission 1957–72: History and Memories (Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union, 2007).Google Scholar
Gehler, M. (ed., in collaboration with A. Pudlat). Vom gemeinsamen Markt zur europäischen Unionsbildung: 50 Jahre Römische Verträge 1957–2007/From Common Market to European Union Building: 50 Years of the Rome Treaties 1957–2007 (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, Böhlau, 2009).Google Scholar
Gehler, M. The Signing of the Rome Treaties 65 Years Ago: Origins, Provisions and Effects (Bonn, ZEI, 2022).Google Scholar
Gehler, M. and Loth, W. (eds.). Reshaping Europe: Towards a Political, Economic and Monetary Union, 1984–1989 (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, W. ‘Shaping European Union: The European Parliament and Institutional Reform, 1979–1989’ (2018), www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/630271/EPRS_STU(2018)630271_EN.pdf.Google Scholar
Laursen, J. (ed.). The Institutions and Dynamics of the European Community, 1973–83 (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2014).Google Scholar
Loth, W. (ed.). Crises and Compromises: The European Project 1963–69 (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2001).Google Scholar
Van der Harst, J. (ed.). Beyond the Customs Union: The European Community’s Quest for Deepening, Widening and Completion, 1969–1975 (Brussels, Paris and Baden-Baden, Bruylant and Nomos, 2007).Google Scholar
Van der Harst, J. and Voerman, G. (eds.). An Impossible Job? The Presidents of the European Commission 1958–2014 (London, Harper, 2015).Google Scholar
Warlouzet, L., Governing Europe in a Globalizing World: Neoliberalism and Its Alternatives Following the 1973 Oil Crisis (London, Routledge, 2017).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×