Is European integration a political mission or driven by the economic interestsof other states?

Question

include sources, please.

Answer 1

Not either or. It's both. And which mattters more depends to a substantial degree where you are.

The original driving energy was the desire of France and the emerging Bundesrepublik Deutschland after its foundation in 1949 to make it harder for either to go to war again with the other.

When De Gaulle said "Non" to Britain'e entry in 1962 and when Heath got us in in 1973 it was "The European Economic Community" (EEC), colloquially known a the "common market". (There's a lovely song from c1973 about its impact on the ordinary people "When the Common Market Came to Stanton Drew".) The project was sold to the UK people on its economic benefits (trade integration).

But to the next entrants, Spain and Portugal, ex-fascist states, the political bulwark against fascism and for dmocracy was an important motivating factor. Similarly for many of the recent entrants, the shoring up of independence in the Baltics and of non-communist democracy has been important. However, what is also true is that as the EU has enlarged it has become more of a magnet economically, especially to poorer countries. Since the 1980s everyone on the outside on the fringe of the EU wants to join because they are poor and they see EU membership as helping them to become rich.

Notice that two of the rich countries which have chosen not to join the EU did so to protect special economic interests -- Norway's oil and Iceland's fish. Greenland is out for similar reasons. Only Switzerland (and Liechtenstein, because of Stz) is out for political reasons (neutrality).

Behind all this surface stuff, the deeper truth is that the world is gradually becoming One. There is a 400-years-long trend to world unification, manifest also in such developments as the Internet, the UN, ASEAN, NAFTA, and the migration of numerous people from the poorer parts of the world to the West (and to Dubai, Singapore and other labour-short countries). We the world's people are learning to understand one another, mix with one another, learn each other's languagues, communicate and do business together. Spirituality is rising progressively through the morass of religion and religious conflict to light a beacon of unity that all may follow -- voluntarily, not because Authority says so. The EU is a far-from-perfect human institution but it works and it is a model of trans-national co-operation and a beacon to all and you will see an EU from the Azores in mid-Atlantic to Vladivostok on the Pacific shore of Asia within 25 years.

So to summarise, dear one, yes it is political, yes it is economic, and more than that it is a vanguard of a vast and holy purpose un-noticed by most who are making it happen because the scale of the mission is too large to be easily seen, larger than any lifetime or any interest group. And when I speak Greek with folks from the Ukraine, or German in the Czech Republic, I am part of this hidden magic.

Answer 2

Both, it is an attempt of France and Germany to dominate the European economy. The other political/economic goal was to protect the socialist systems of Germany and France which are on the verge of collapse.

Answer 3

European integration has several socio-economic benefits to the countries. In countries that entered the European Union, wealth and life standards improved, unemployment decreased, inflation fell down, and budget balance is reestablished.