Summary

The economics of the European Community provide a complex series of issues for both the student and the scholar. The authors of this up-to-date account provide a lucid and comprehensive investigation of such key topics as the monetary system, agricultural and trade policy, social and economic integration, and environmental issues. The work begins with a discussion of the economic theory of preferential trading areas and the economics behind the Common Agricultural Policy, a brief introduction to the history of the European Union (EU), and a statistical illustration of the basic economic features of the EU and its constituent members. The work then goes on to explore other specific policies of the EU in the social sphere, in competition and industrial policy, in the areas of agriculture, transport and the environment, and in counteracting regional economic disparities. An analysis of the Community Budget is given, as well as a critique of the problem of budgetary imbalance. Drawing on the most authoritative data to analyze both the present and future of the European Community, this book will inform a wide range of readers interested in modern European economics.