The integration of the European Community and third states in Europe

This book examines the legal frameworks for integration provided by the EC Treaty, the Free Trade Agreement concluded between Sweden and the European Community in 1972, The Europe Agreement between Poland and the Community and the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement. The examination is based not solely on traditional legal materials, such as treaties and legislative acts, court decisions and the academic literature, but also draws on a range of official materials published by national governments and the European Union. Using these materials the book compares the operation of four types of legal frameworks for integration but also, with the assistance of the comparisons, explores underlying problems in the integration of the European Community and third states in Europe.

In the case of many countries, notably those making up the former Soviet Union, membership of the European Union may not appear to offer a feasible basis for their participation in European integration processes, and so the construction of a mutually acceptable legal framework for close relations between such countries and the Community arguably presents one of the most serious and pressing problems to be tackled by European Law. Furthermore the construction of an appropriate framework depends on lessons being drawn from the operation of existing or pre-existing frameworks governing relations between the Community and third states. The same might be said in respect of plans for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean area involving countries such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.