ABSTRACT
Although the main focus of efforts to bring about economic integration-and certainly the most visible one-has been the European Community (EC) 1992 program, many developments have taken place in the European Union (EU) that, while not a part of the formal program, are nonetheless highly relevant to the integration effort. Economic and monetary union (EMU), long the subject of debate, moved to center stage in the late 1980s, as a consensus emerged that a genuine single market could not exist as long as member states pursued separate monetary policies and, more generally, economic policies. The Court has played an unobtrusive, but significant role in promoting the process of economic integration through its decisions and resulting legal precedents. The Court's actions take two forms: "preliminary rulings" on interpretations of EU law, which are made at the request of a national court; and decisions on cases brought before it.
