EC's Response To The Crisis In Yugoslavia

Although the preamble to the EEC Treaty states the determination to "lay the foundation; of an ever c10ser unionamong the peoples of Europe," the process of integration was based on economics rather than politics. Nevertheless, in the way to integration, the member states developed the mechanisms to coordinate their foreign policies. This was not only because of some member states' willingness to create a Western European political federation, but also as a reaction to the changing international. structures.1 In the Iate 1960s initial steps were laken in the formation of a common foreign policy. The Hague Summit in 1969 formulated the European political cooperation; a system based on intergovernmental cooperation. The efforts to make more formal, binding arrangement were led Lothe provisions in the Single European Act of 1986, in which European Political Cooperation was formally institutionaliz.edwithin the EC. However, under the SEA, EPC was to remain intergovernmental and subject to individual vetoes. With the Maastricht Treaty the institutional capacity of the Community in this field is strengthened. Although unanimity will be the rule in the general process, voting may lake place conceming the implementation of joint action. in addition, the distinction between the economic and political aspects of security and the defense aspects are abolished.2