Towards an authoritarian European state

On 1 January 1993 the internal borders of the twelve countries in the European Community (EC) will officially come down allowing for the free movement of goods, services, capital and (some) people. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 marked the beginning of this process and the Single European Act of 1987 set out the fulfilment of economic union for a market of 330 million people with a potential to challenge and supplant the economic power of the USA and of Japan. On the one hand, there are the formal institutions of the EC- its Council of Ministers, Commission and Parliament- drawing their authority from the Treaty of Rome and embodying free market principles, quasi-democratic procedures and at least the promise of social liberalism. On the other hand, behind these formal institutions lurk the begin-nings of another state apparatus, made up of ad hoc and secretive bodies and separate inter-governmental arrangements, which retlects the repressive side of European political development and is largely