ABSTRACT
The opposition of the UK Prime Minister, John Major, during negotiations preceding the 1992 Maastricht Summit to the inclusion of the 'F word' that is federalism, in the Treaty on European Union was reminiscent of the immediate post-war debate on European integration. The immediate origins of European unification lie in the economic and political problems confronting European countries, notably France and Germany, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The failure of the European Defence Community project marked an important turning point within the post-war debate on European integration. The founders of the European Community had intended that the European Commission would become a technocratic, supranational European executive, embodying the European general will. Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty provoked an unexpected upsurge of public opposition to European integration in general and the Community institutions in particular.
