A Community Beyond the Single Market: The Cecchini Report and the Making of Europe 1992

This paper examines the role of informal advising on EC politics through the lens of The Cost of Non-Europe, a policy paper better known as the ‘Cecchini Report’. Indeed, this research initiative stands out as one of the major outputs of the private-public nexus at the supranational level prior to the Maastricht Treaty. Drafted between 1986 on the behalf of EC Commission President Jacques Delors, the Cecchini Report represents a key milestone in the creation of the Single Market. Besides, it paved the way for all subsequent policy papers on the European economic integration, including the recent Draghi Report. So far, this initiative has been studied from a technical and economic perspective, overlooking its ideological, sociological, and political features and aims. This paper seeks to address this gap through an extensive comparison of new archival evidence. This comparison sheds light on the political vision of EC elites in the early neoliberal era and offers a privileged look at the idea of Europe 1992. The case study of the Cecchini report also provides insights into the Delors Commission’s attempts to promote the EC’s international identity through public diplomacy and scientific dissemination.