Envoi is a pretty word that comes from medieval French. It describes a postscript attached as the final stanza of a ballad and includes both a dedication and a commendation. This envoi is dedicated to those who have built Europe. It also commends them in the sense of thanking. A commendation must also recommend. To participants in the historical drama it recommends that they view their own work in light of the grand project to which they and their successors have contributed or will contribute. This envoi also recommends their work as a subject to those whom it commends to undertake the pleasant task of writing the future history of European integration. This is the first book to deal with the matter comprehensively and over its entire fifty-year history. The author hopes to encourage others to write better accounts in the future by challenging those written in the past and presenting a new version of the story.

The process of European integration is a suitable subject for the social scientist but really belongs to the historian. Although a force shaping the world of today, it has become part of the past – has been woven into the fabric of civilization, and rewoven it aswell. European integration is an epiphenomenon of broad and lasting change and thus cannot be understood in isolation. The nature of its impact also varies from time to time and place to place and can be either good or bad depending upon circumstance.