ABSTRACT
Given the creation of the Single European Market (SEM), the development of related policies and the introduction of economic and monetary union (EMU), European businesses and, indeed enterprises owned and located primarily outside Europe but with aspirations to penetrate the European market, are increasingly affected by policies and programmes devised at the EU level. Subsequent chapters explore this phenomenon in relation to a range of individual policy areas. These policies belong to a broader context of national, European and international environments which are explored in more theoretical terms in Chapter 1. In order to understand these policies more fully and to identify where business can attempt to influence EU policy outcomes, business needs to be able to fit these policies into their historical and institutional context. This chapter therefore outlines the evolution of the EEC into the EU, highlighting key developments and focuses on the main institutions and actors in the formulation of policy before concluding with preliminary discussion of the main challenges which will face the European Union and its enterprises in the early years of the twenty-first century.
