The new European Union is trying hard; or so it seems. It is trying to be more democratic, to be closer to us, the new European citizens, to give us rights, to make us all better off. It is trying to set an agenda. Of course, the Community has always had an agenda. The Community was designed to reinforce peace in Europe, and to make money. More particularly, it was designed to preserve the authority of the nation-state and its prosperity. Wealthy and secure citizens of the post-war nation-states, it was surmised, would make happy and contented citizens. As I suggested in chapter 3, the history of the Community has always been a history of preserving the nation-state interest, and of making the minimum necessary concessions to the much vaunted supranational characteristics established in the Treaty framework. The situation has changed during the last decade; or at least it has appeared to change. The apparent catalyst for the change has been the determination to complete the single market, encapsulated in the "1992 Project". The increasing realisation of the Commission, that economic integration necessitated greater political integration, has given the Community and Union an ambition which for the previous three decades had remained purely rhetorical.