ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter presents a brief chronological overview of the European integration process during the CWO – more specifically from 1947 until 1982. The chapter advances six main arguments. First, that the nature and trajectory of the European project during the CWO resulted, in part, from the contest between antiand pro-European forces and conservative, liberal and socialist forces within EEC/EC member states, and between and intergovernmental and supranationalist forces and conservative, liberal and socialist forces at the EEC/EC level and beyond. Second, that the liberal and supranationalist forces were, generally speaking, the dominant ones in this struggle. Third, and following from the second argument, that the European project evolved as a liberal entity during this period. Fourth, that the founding treaties of the EEC ensured the preeminence of market liberalism and thus negative, rather than positive, integration. Fifth, and following from the fourth argument, that the EEC/EC prioritized economic liberalization rather than social policy and, in so doing, precluded the creation of a common, Europe-wide social model and/or a unified EEC/EC-level welfare state. Sixth, and following from the fifth argument about the limited nature of social policy action at the EEC/EC level, that the European project influenced the development of Western Europe’s welfare states in a structural rather than direct sense. The chapter is divided into eight main sections. The first section reviews some of the early ideas and practical attempts at European integration, while the sections that follow survey the main phases of the European integration process during the CWO. These include the laying of Europe’s foundations (1952-1957), the intergovernmental challenge (1959-1966), completion, deepening and enlargement (1969-1979) and the socialist challenge (1981-1982).
