Interactions and main sources of friction between national regimes

The previous chapter emphasised the differences between European countries. Although these countries share many common characteristics and, with the exception of Greece, have embarked on similar economic development, the differences are important. The countries are the product of specific historical development, and have evolved for many years with few outside influences. In each country, patterns of co-ordination were adopted and reinforced over time, producing conventions. Within each regime, composed of conventions and based on a foundation of principles, economic activity has followed a different course. As a consequence, the categories of actors and, more to the point, the importance of each actor within regimes, are far from homogeneous throughout the EU. Therefore, with the growing economic ties between countries sharing a common economic space (first the EEC, subsequently the EU), any interaction involves the confrontation of regimes based on very different premises and representing different interests. In other words, interactions between EU Member States are asymmetric, sometimes leading to the negative influence of particular national regimes.