ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the West European governments differ in the way that they have chosen to cope with the question and diverge in the guiding premises and fundamental beliefs upon which these choices are based. It is obvious that the challenge of European integration had dominated the foreign policy agendas of decision makers in the West European states in the postwar period. The French foreign policy goal of seeking a partition and permanent weakening of Germany, turning it into a confederation of states without a central government, was in fact very closely linked to the domestic economic objective of postwar reconstruction. The Single European Act (SEA) and the Treaty on European Union (TEU) extended the competence of the European Union (EU) to related economic, monetary and social policy areas and included a timetable for the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
