Six states signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Since then membership of the EEC has grown to 12 and through its pursuit of common agricultural, budgetary, industrial and social policies and co-operation in foreign affairs, Europe now stands on the verge of economic and monetary union. In this view of what the Community is, how it works and what it still might achieve, John Pinder assesses the political and economic forces for and against unification and the likelihood of Europe becoming a federal state.