ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the path to European economic integration. It outlines the context, interests, capacities and institutional settings and constraints which are essential in understanding the negotiations between the European Economic Community (EEC) and Israel. The process of European integration was accelerated by US economic aid to the Western European countries in the framework of the Marshall Plan and the establishment of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation in 1949. As a natural continuation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the structure of the EEC reflected the dual elements of the European integration process, and each one of these received tangible expression in the new community's institutions. The success of the ECSC encouraged efforts to establish additional common European bodies. The European Commission, in contrast, embodied the future vision: a supra-national body staffed by bureaucrats identifying with the interests of the new entity—Europe—rather than those of their home countries.
