The completion of the European internal market by 1992 is one of the EC Commission’s key objectives. European integration is to be given fresh impetus by removing remaining frontier controls and trade barriers, liberalising public procurement and limiting the number of sectors protected from...

Improving the mobility of labour is a major component of Project 92. What are the reasons for migration under conditions of freedom of movement and what are the repercussions for the labour market?

It is again being argued that the low labour costs and social standards in countries on the periphery of the EC—Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain—jeopardise employment in the northern EC countries and the social safety net they have constructed. A common social policy harmonising...

After two false starts, the first stage of European Economic and Monetary Union began on 1st July 1990. The following two articles discuss the consequences that the inauguration of EMU will have for economic policy co-ordination in the European Community.

The debate over the completion of the single European market is increasingly centering on its so-called social dimension. Does it make sense to streamline social security in the member states as a safety net against the adverse consequences of the single market?

The Delors Committee’s three stage plan for attaining European Economic and Monetary Union has met with heavy criticism and has given rise to various counter-proposals. The following article examines the relative merits and shortcomings of the Delors Plan and the alternative concepts presented...

Since the beginning of the 1980s, an increase in the number of fixed-term employment contracts has been apparent in a number of free-market-oriented economies. This has been accompanied by amendments to the pertinent legislation. From the early to mid-1980s, a number of EC countries initiated...

Intensified efforts have been made in the EC in recent years to close the open flanks of its agricultural trade policy. The advocates of this not only believe that an import substitution policy will solve the problem of surpluses, the budget crisis and the grave income problems in the...

The question whether European Monetary Union should include all the EC countries from the start or should initially be limited to a few core countries is again being discussed more intensely. What advantages would a small EMU have from an economic point of view? Which countries should be its...