The importance of the SEA to the history of European integration

The Single European Act can without doubt be regarded as one of the most
important documents in the history of European integration as it gave the European
community the “push” it needed in order to finish some of the goals which have
been established by the creation of the EEC. The Single European Act, however, does
not propose a revolutionary idea whatsoever – It is rather a tool used to ratify the
Treaty of Rome as it was not keeping up to its promises and thus made the general
public lose hope in the ambitious idea of unifying European states and ending the era
of war.
The Single European act (signed in 1962) set a deadline for the establishment
of a single European market as the one promised by the Treaty of Rome was not
functioning properly. A trading environment with the absence of any remaining
barriers which would allow the absolute free movement of goods, services, capital
and most importantly – people through the borders of member states will be
beneficial for creating a true European singularity. The introduction of the QMV
system in institutions such as the Council of Ministers was crucial as the EEC was
crippled by the unanimous form of decision-making which was favored by the French
President Charles de Gaulle. The way the Single European Act tackled this problem
was by substituting the unanimity required for all decision making with a Qualified
Majority Voting System and let the unanimity voting system only when the Council of
Ministers was discussing a decision which had the potential of heavily influencing all
of the member states. It also ratified the establishment of the European Parliament
which is the institution responsible for creating the common laws inside of the EEC
and is still in power today. Furthermore, the Single European act broadened the
scope of the EEC to more areas such as environmental protection, preservation of
European culture and historical heritage and also funding of research and scientific
development which greatly aided the communication and connectivity between
member states.
The most important achievement of the Single European Act is the fact that it
has proven that European states can without doubt cooperate with each other and
thus achieve their synchronized goals in the reams of foreign policy, internal policy
and overall development. The prospect of liberal values is an idea which nobody
could have expected to find their way in Europe given the nature of European history
which was filled with war and conflicts. The Single European Act is one of the many
attempts of policymakers to achieve a lasting peace and unity within the continent
and it many ways it has succeeded in doing so. The Single European Act not only
strengthened the European Economic Community but also laid the foundation for
future integration efforts which ultimately led to the successful creation and
establishment of the modern European Union.