Introduction: Multinational Enterprises and European Economic Integration

The relationship between multinational enterprises and nation states has long been a fraught one. This is particularly true since the end of the Second World War, when the growth rate of multinational enterprises and their global spread accelerated enormously (Buckley and Casson, 1976; 1985). One aspect of this evolving relationship has been the impact of economic integration on the policies of multinationals, and the firms’ response. This book examines these issues by a close focus on one major attempt at economic integration: the European Communities (EC). Further, it examines the expansion of the domain of integration to three lesser developed entrants: Greece, Spain and Portugal. This poses special problems of integration. Far from remaining the European ‘rich man’s club’, the EC has extended to some of Western Europe’s poorest communities. The expansion of the market is only one facet of the changes this expansion entails, for the political, social and economic differences among EC countries are now far wider than when it was originally formed.