Decision Making in the European Community: Council Presidency and European Integration - Softcover

The dynamics of the internal market, regime changes in Eastern Europe and the inadequate handling of the Gulf conflict provided the European Community with an opportunity to take major steps towards greater integration in the 1990s. As in previous periods, greater integration confronts national interests which so far have been the main determinants of the speed and direction of integration. However, unlike the past, when the Community progressed in fits and starts, there are now significant practices in EC decision-making (unlike the "mutual recognition" of national standards and "subsidiarity"), which smooth the links between Community and national competences and which promote a "pooling of sovereignties" among the member states. There is now an interlocking decision-making relationship between national and Community institutions. This work describes and analyzes the processes governing genuine European integration by examining federalism, the SEA, the Council of Europe Presidency and the sort of agenda that will ensure effective European decision-making.