INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL-INTEGRATION

For both economic and political development in that part of Europe which managed to remain free of Soviet and Communist domination, transnational integration has been a distinctive trait after World War II. In fact, such integration has become the very basis of Western Europe's self-maintenance and welfare. After East-West conflict has come to an end and neither the Soviet nor the Communist threat continue to put pressure on the West Europeans, three questions impose themselves. Will the European countries that have taken the road of integration feel they can dispense with it in future? What will be the relationship between the West Europeans both politically consolidated and economically wealthy and those European countries which have been ruined by Soviet and Communist domination? And will Europe follow tendencies which would result in secluding it from the rest of the world? Gerd Langguth who is the representative of the Commission of the European Community (EC) in Bonn offers his views on these problems in the following article.