European economic integration

Although it is difficult if not impossible to isolate the economic history of a nation or continent from its political and cultural history, or for that matter from the personalities who contribute to it, this chapter concentrates on European economic integration and leaves a detailed discussion of the political and cultural aspects to other contributors to this volume (see in particular Chapter 9). In order to structure the history of European economic integration since 1945, the discussion that follows links it to the course of the European business cycle. This is an obvious and useful way to “translate” the chronological dimension. Another reason for this linkage is that the successive steps in the process of integration have, if not triggered, then most probably contributed to the recovery in many of the observed cycles. By linking the business cycle to European economic integration, we do not, on the other hand, mean to imply that the reverse would automatically be true as well, namely that business cycle conditions have influenced the process of integration, although-as we shall see-it certainly cannot be excluded in some particular cases.