ABSTRACT
A brief historical retrospect suggests that the European project launched by Jean Monnet was clearly a political one. The breaking-down of the Bretton Woods system brought a lot of exchange rate instability among European currencies, hindering the ongoing process of economic specialization across national borders. The European Monetary System was precisely designed in order to remove this source of discrepancy, but the success was difficult to achieve in front of the huge move towards financial deregulation. Thus, European integration is neither the outcome of a pure economic determinism, nor the result of the exertion of political will and leadership. Given the complex interactions existing between the political and economic factors that shape the integration process, the achievements of the European Union ought to be explained. A priori, many informed analysts would have forecast the exhaustion of the integrating forces and even the collapse of the European institutions due to the resurgence of conflicting national interests.
