The Deepening of the Integration Process

Since the European Communities were created in the 1950s, European integration has advanced in many ways. One, much-used and very useful, analytical device for capturing the nature of the ways in which integration has advanced is to distinguish between deepening and widening. Deepening refers to the development of vertical integration: that is, to the ever more intense nature of the integration that exists between member states. Widening refers to the development of horizontal integration: that is, to the growing geographical spread of the EC/EU via the accessions of new member states.