Interdependence between economic and political integration: some remarks

Abstract

Jean Monnet, a French politician and one of the founding fathers of the European Community together with Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer wrote in 1944, at the peak of the Second World War: 'There will be no peace in Europe when the states form themselves anew only on the basis of national sovereignty and as a result of that, on the basis of a prestige policy and economic protectionism.' And he added: 'Europe must be unified not only through cooperation but also through a voluntary transfer of sovereignty of European nations to some kind of a central union a union which has the power to reduce custom tariffs, to create a bigger European market and to prohibit the revival of nationalism.'