ABSTRACT
The decade of the 1990s was seen by many observers as an important watershed in the history of the European Union (EU). The push towards greater European integration with the launch of the Single European Market (SEM) programme in 1985 provided the stimulus for a wide-ranging debate throughout the member states of the EC concerning the ways in which the internal and external relationships of the Community would be radically altered in the final years of the 20th century. With the ‘delivery date’ set for the creation of the SEM at the end of 1992 there was general agreement that the resultant changes would have a profound impact on the 12 nation states of the EU and their peoples.
