ABSTRACT
The Community is a political dwarf despite progress, and Community foreign policy has a papier mache quality. The USSR domination in Europe has dissolved and the military threat much diminished, while the US.'s own financial capacities to play a lone leadership role have been vividly exposed. The objective of completing the internal market is achievable although difficulties remain in sectors such as the removal of the fiscal and the physical barriers. There has also been some progress on the way to a monetary union thanks to another intergovernmental conference that started in December 1990 and should finish its work in June 1991. The involvement of the United States in the security of Western Europe will run down even more rapidly in the future. Most Economic Community (EC) governments would prefer to introduce defense into the Community through Western European Union, a non-EC institution -just as the European Monetary System, conceived outside the Community womb, has introduced money into the EC.
