ABSTRACT
With this statement the most distinguished EC visionary of the 1980s comes full circle, returning to the viewofhis predecessor, Robert Schuman, whose statement began this book. Delors's sentiment recognizes that European integration has been not a preordained movement toward federal union but a series of pragmatic bargains among national governments based on concrete national interests, relative power, and carefully calculated transfers of sovereignty. The persistence of national power was the bitter lesson Delors drew from his difficult experience in th e Maastricht negotiation.'
