Formal versus Informal Developments in the European Integration Process

Abstract

This essay first tries to draw a distinction between informal and formal developments in the European integration process; or, in other words, between informal and formal integration. Bearing in mind that the whole process of formal and informal developments in the European integration would go well beyond the purpose of any essay of this size, this paper takes a case-study approach in order to reduce the topic to a manageable size. Accordingly, the paper takes the emergence of the Single Market plan as its case study, with its focus on the role of European level interest groups on the way leading to the signing of the Single European Act. By doing so, it gives us the opportunity to weigh formalistic accounts such as those emphasising the realisation of Treaty goals and the role played by member states in sanctioning the Single European Act against perspectives which pay attention to the interaction of non-state actors and the growth of private dynamics of market integration. In theoretical terms, this paper takes the 'policy network' approach to the subject outlined above, as its basic assumption. In other words, it assumes that a policy network was formed between the Commission with its authority as a public organisation, on the one hand, and transnational business interest groups with their knowledge and initiative, on the other. It was their dependencies on each other's resources that established the policy network, and their co-operation brought about the signing of the Single European Act. Within this framework, this essay looks into the main propositions of the policy network approach in section two, after giving a brief information about the stages of the development of European level interest articulation in the first section. In the third section, it deals with interest group activities, especially those of the European Round Table, in the period preceding the conclusion of the Single European Act.