Since the European Economic Community came into being in January 1958, the nations of Western Europe have been forging ever closer bonds through new institutions, most notably a European parliament, a common market, and a joint security force. The Treaty on European Union, signed in February 1992 in Maastricht, will take European integration considerably further. The treaty established plans for a common currency and common policies on foreign and security affairs and on justice and internal affairs. Realization of the goals laid out at Maastricht would, in the words of AEI Research Fellow Jeffrey Gedmin, constitute "the greatest voluntary transfer of sovereignty in history."

Two new volumes edited by Mr. Gedmin and published by the AEI Press consider the likelihood and significance of a tighter European Union. European Integration and American Interests: What the New Europe Really Means for the United States ($29.95 cloth, $14.95 paper) contains thirty-six essays by public officials, academics, business leaders, and journalists from the United States and Europe. The essays are grouped into three subject areas--economy and trade, political cooperation, and defense and security--and address critical issues such as the likely effects of European union on free trade between Europe and the United States and the consequences should plans for further European integration fail.

A Single European Currency? ($9.95) focuses more precisely on the politics, prospects, and likely consequences of the European Union's efforts to adopt a single currency that would replace the various national currencies of member states. The book contains essays by Otmar Issing, a member of the directorate of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Vá Klaus, prime minister of the Czech Republic; Allan H. Meltzer, a visiting fellow at AEI and Allan H. Meltzer University Professor of Political Economy at Carnegie Mellon University; and Paul Mentré, executive secretary of the Committee for the Monetary Union of Europe.