1. Introduction
Is it fair to conclude that, in the last decades, the economies of the Member States
have become more integrated so they now form one unified European economy?
There is no immediate answer to this question, as there is no clear consensus
concerning the meaning of the word integration. Loosely speaking, economic
integration refers to a diversified process where formerly independent countries
melt together to form a unity.
Economic integration may at least have two dimensions. Firstly, the concept of
integration can be related to the degree of convergence with respect to formal and
institutional frameworks. It is obvious that the EU co-operation has created such
conditions for the economic environment in a number of central areas. For
instance, The Internal Market has made the state borders less important. As a
result of this, the institutional conditions for producers and consumers within the
EU have become more uniform in several crucial respects. The Common
Agricultural Policy is another example whereby EU has created a common
institutional framework as the farmers in the EU all produce under the same set of
market regulations. Finally, the EMU gives the institutional set up in the monetary
area for the countries participating in the common currency. So by this measure -
similarity of institutional and formal frameworks - integration has proceeded a
great deal, and the EU must be said to be highly integrated.
Secondly, the concept of integration can be related to the degree of similarity in
outcome measured, for example by uniform prices, interest rates, unemployment
rates, and standards of living. These two aspects of integration - similarity in
institutional and formal frameworks and similarity in outcome - do not necessarily
lead to the same conclusions with respect to the development of the process of
integration.
The complexity of the concept of integration is not the only hindrance to
examining the effects of the EU process of integration because the removal of
barriers also represents a global trend. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish the
specific effects of the European process from the global one.