The European Community, 1978-93

The European Community underwent a remarkable transformation in the mid-1980s. The Single Market Program (1992) became synonymous with a revitalized Community moving rapidly toward greater political and economic integration. The end of the Cold War, to which the Single Market Program undoubtedly contributed, posed enormous internal and external challenges. The most common concern was that Germany's preoccupation with unification, and the Community's preoccupation with Germany, would derail the Single Market Program and the most recent initiative for economic and monetary union. Instead, German unification spurred renewed interest in European integration, culminating in the Maastricht Treaty of February 1992. Yet growing popular concern about the Community's development sparked the Maastricht Treaty ratification crisis. In the past, crises have acted as a catalyst for deeper European integration. The Maastricht ratification crisis could have a similar impact, especially by focusing attention on the Community's democratic deficit.