ABSTRACT
Comparisons have often been drawn between the customs union and the CAP on the one hand and EMU on the other, as the main driving forces of European integration in the 1960s and 1970s respectively. I would argue that EMU differed substantially from the CAP and even more from the customs union in at least one respect. Since there were very few provisions for common economic and monetary policies in the Treaty of Rome, the necessary coalitions for an agreement on EMU had to be built from scratch. In this respect the project of EMU was more similar to the creation of the European Economic Community, the European Defence Community plan and the question of enlargement. In all these cases, there existed no prior commitment or general agreement which would be taken as given and from which the Community members could start their negotiations.[ 1 ] This also explains, together with the gradual evolution in the division of powers between the Commission and the Council, the role which the Commission played both in the preliminary negotiations and in later discussions.
