ABSTRACT
The original intent of Jean Monnet and the other founders of the European Union was to join Germany, France and enough other European countries sufficiently closely economically to make certain that they would never go to war against one another again. Thus, the motivation behind the founding of the European Union was to provide a form of public good for all of Europe. In describing the European Union’s raison d’être today, we would expand the list of collective goods that can be provided more efficiently at the European level, and would explicitly include the gains to all Europeans from free trade. The European Union’s raison d’être is to help Europeans achieve the possible gains from a more efficient allocation of goods and services.
