Twenty-five years after its foundation, the European Community is in a blind alley. Not one of the urgent problems facing it was brought closer to solution at the summit conference held in Athens at the end of last year. Professor Rudolf Hrbek takes stock.

The outcome of the Athens and Brussels summits was a cruel disappointment for all European optimists. The brunt of the consequences of this diplomatic failure will be borne by the Common Agricultural Policy. Is it now time to write its obituary?

On the surface, Europe seems to be climbing out of the dreary post-1973 era, marked by anxiety, doubts, and shocks, to a new “1960s”: economic growth, declining inflation, new consumer gadgets to enjoy. But the medium-term outlook is more disturbing than the euphoria engendered by a...

In the intense political debate on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy there is a high degree of consensus that the present rates of production growth must be stopped and structural surpluses dismantled. On the other hand, there is broad agreement that the structural adjustment of...