ABSTRACT
On 15 December 1993 agreement was finally reached in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, which took place in the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Over the four decades spanned by the literature on European integration no consensus has emerged on the role of the European Commission. There is basically still the gap between those who stress the predominance of the governments of the member states and play down the role of the Commission, and those who cast doubt on the autonomy of member states. Early writings on the Communities addressed not only the process of integration but also the decision-making process. The Treaty on European Union, signed in Maastricht in December 1991, has added new elements to the debate on the role of the Commission. Intergovernmental interpretations have been strengthened both by the text of the Treaty and by subsequent developments in the first half of the 1990s.
