France before Europe 1992

The deadline of Europe 1992 is approaching. By this date, it is planned to eliminate border formalities and to liberalize to a considerable extent goods and services transactions as well as capital and labor movements in the Common Market. The question arises how well France is prepared for this eventuality. The present chapter aims at contributing some clarifications to answering this question. This will be done by reviewing French economic performance in the 1980–8 period and examining some issues relevant for the future.