The paper analyses the proposal to create a hard core of EU countries committed to deeper and faster integration by studying the economic structure of the proposed grouping. It is divided into two parts. The first examines the relative weight and structural characteristics of the five potential...

Theoretical and empirical research suggests that import competition within European markets imposes a major constraint on domestic firms's price-cost margins. The programme for the completion of the European Community's (EC) internal market by 1992 is largely based on the effects expected from a...