ABSTRACT
The single European aviation market (SEAM) is the greatest achievement to date in cutting the Gordian knot between national air sovereignty and international airline operations. The European Union (EU) is a novel creation of contemporary times, which defies easy characterization and poses difficult challenges for explanation. It exposes inadequacies in the language and concepts of international relation (IR). This chapter addresses the questions of what brought about the astonishing and seemingly most unlikely metamorphosis in Europe, and how they overcame the strongly embedded vested interests that stood against change. In a more favorable context, the Court and the Commission worked hard to bring about incremental change, develop expertise and form alliances with those Member States that favored reform. These strategies facilitated the exploitation of Court decisions to create powerful legal drivers at a time when there was a broad renewal of the momentum for consummating the European Single Market.
