ALBERTO MAJOCCHI

Funzioni e limiti dell'integrazione economica europea 

N. 2/1986

Summary — The European integration process, after the period of the 1960s characterized by high rates of economic growth, goes through a crisis in the course of the 1970s. The dollar’s inconvertibility due to the persistent American external deficit, brings about a generalized exchange rate fluctuation, which causes devastating effects to the Community: in fact, the industrial integration risks to fail, and also the common agricultural policy keeps up only thanks to the introduction of monetary compensatory amounts which again isolate the national markets.

The reversal of tendency, which on the political field is realised by means of the direct election of the European Parliament, comes about on the monetary field with the starting of the EMS (European Monetary System). But the results achieved, although positive, are not sufficient. In fact, the limited size of the Community’s budget does not allow the starting of the necessary common policies to give again impetus to European economy and to stand up to the technological competition with the United States and Japan. And on the other side, the non-realization of the second stage, of an institutional nature, of the EMS, prevents to arrive at the creation of a real European currency.

But the fundamental limit consists in the lack of an effective decisional capacity at the Community’s level. The upturn of the development of the European economic integration implies therefore a profound reform of the Community’s institutional structure in conformity with the line of the Draft Treaty establishing the European Union drawn up by the European Parliament. Within this framework the completion of the EMS will be possible, with the creation of a European central Bank, and the strengthening of the Community’s budget on which depends the upturn of a balanced development of the European economy.