Maastricht : Lessons not learnt and mistakes that shouldn't have been made

From a standpoint of support for the deepening of European integration, the current article offers a critica1 insight into the way in which the respective governments of the Community have presented the Maastricht Treaty before public opinion, a manner described in the text as an attempt to sellthe Treaty. In the author's opinion, looking back at the historical background of European union reveals on the one hand, that countries have always stopped short of those compromises reached in its political aspect and, on the other, that the process that has resulted in Maastricht is not the fruition of a permanent dialogue between politicians and the people on this subject. In addition, great opportunities in the process of political cooperation have coincided at economically unfavourable moments the result of which has been that the countriesinvolved have had to fall back on themselves. The same attempt to sellMaastricht has led to a series of errors analysed in detail here. From the author's point of view, what is important is to understand that the Maastricht Treaty offers to change not only certain economic facts of life (and to a lesser extent, political and social as well) but, above all, the way of doing things in our respective societies, the consequence of which involves a tremendous cultural transformation, that is to say, a great change in our way of thinking. The main conclusion of this work therefore is that for the welfare of European integration it would be very counterproductive to accelerate a process so complex and with such profound implications as that of Maastricht.