In the decade following Great Britain's accession in 1973, Europe was marked by economic malaise, oil crises and increasing political tensions between East and West. In response to the rapidly worsening economic and social prospects national governments rushed into taking measures to protect their home economy. It was only after belief in the benefit of joint crisis management returned that the necessary political will emerged to take up the integration process and achieve substantial reform of the Treaties of Rome. To this end, the prospect of one large common market in Europe was the most important motivation. The Single European Act of 1986/1987 constituted a new basis for economic and monetary cooperation, while also laying a foundation in the area of foreign policy. Beyond the spotlights of the European Council, the European Commission was making grateful use of the growing perception among government leaders that more cooperation required more action-oriented Community institutions. In this regard, the European Parliament also managed to strengthen its position. The first direct elections in 1979 certainly did not change the Community from a Europe of states into a Europe of citizens, but they did give the Parliament more weight in the triangle of power including the Council of Ministers and the Commission. In the meantime, the ambitions of Greece, Spain and Portugal to accede to the EEC also constituted an impetus for more Europe. The economic structural problems of the countries in Southern Europe made a more extensive communautarian policy necessary. It would need to accommodate the new differences in prosperity in the Community as well as not endangering the quality of the project of integration. Thus, for the first time the Community found itself confronted with the connection between enlargement and deepening in the integration process.

‘Eurosclerosis’ and National Reflexes

In the mid 1970s stagnation in European cooperation was reduced to one metaphor: ‘eurosclerosis’. This term was thought up to deride the increasing rigidity of the European economic order. After a long period of growth and stability the economic system began to show signs of rigidity, obstructing proper operation of the market as well as the free flow of capital, goods and people. From these years onward, the term ‘eurosclerosis’ would turn up during every economic crisis.