Welsh Journals

1. WALES AND THE POLITICAL IMPACT OF '1992' INTRODUCTION Neville Chamberlain felt that Wales was not distinct enough an entity to warrant its own minister. Over the years the Principality has gradually asserted its identity, to the present point where some measure of devolution appears a real possibility. At another level, Europe has also struggled to find a sense of its own worth, and in recent years has also begun to lay claim to a degree of autonomy. This chapter seeks to establish what, if any, inter- relationship there may be between these trends. What does the mystic term '1992' mean in political terms? How does this relate to Wales? Is there evidence of change, and how may this influence the Welsh debate? '1992' AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION The date of 31 December 1992 was laid down by the Single European Act (SEA) (Commission 1986), as the deadline for the completion of the Internal Market in the European Community (EC). The Act can be depicted as being primarily policy-driven, minimal institutional change included merely in order to facilitate legislation for the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital within the EC. Such an exclusively economic bias, however, provides at best a partial explanation of the SEA's motives and goals. The Single Market programme was added into the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which drew up the SEA, by the Milan Summit of June 1985. Policy and institutional reform was by then already high on the EC's agenda. One of the primary influences in determining that agenda had been the European Parliament's (EP) Draft European Union Treaty of 1984, to which President François Mitterrand had lent his support. Essentially motivated by federalist goals, the Draft Treaty was too dramatic a step for member states to accept, but it was a vital background to the IGC's deliberations. Duncan Mitchell