Abstract:

I will first of all present to you the main elements of the strategy that was developed to relaunch the European Community - primarily an economic relaunch strategy. I will then tell you a few words of the present political problems. And lastly, I will try to draw a picture of where we are : of what has been achieved, but also, with a more prospective outlook perhaps, of the tensions characterizing the Community at the present moment. I am stressing the word "tensions" because, contrary to other political systems, the Community only makes progress from and through tensions. It may sound paradoxical, but that is the way it is.