From Single Market to European Union

Although the single market topped the agenda of European integration in the 1960s, progress had been slow. Prompted by worries about rising international competition and inflexible European labour markets, there was a renewed effort in the 1980s to complete the single market, resulting in agreement on the first major new treaty since Rome, the 1986 Single European Act (SEA). This gave the European Economic Community — now more often known as the European Community, or simply ‘the Community’ — a new sense of mission and identity.