Intergovernmentalism reached its prime in the ‘doldrum years’ of the European Integration during the 1970s, when the failure to get any further with political integration seemed to confirm most of its premises.

The European Council 

Autarky is a closed economy condition. An economy that is closed and self-sufficient is at the autarky condition.

Preferential trade agreement, Free trade area, Customs union, Common market and EMU are the stages/types of economic integration. 

The classic functionalist approach to world order is based on the assumption that states can create a peaceful world society through gradualist and pragmatic cooperation with one another in technical and economic sectors of activity.

Institutional balance in the EU

Moravcsik (1993) has developed the intergovermentalist approach but agreed with many of the key principles, such as the assumption that nations could be seen as rational and departing from realists approach to the state. He also derived insights from classic intergovernmentalism which sees national interests arising in the context of the state’s perception of its relative position in the state system. At the highest level of abstraction, liberal intergovernmentalism is a variant of rationalist approach in international relations theory specifically tailored to explain European integration. On the other hand, liberal intergovermentalism is more rigorous than its antecedents (Hoffman’s intergovermentalism), incorporating within both realist and neo-liberal elements, and dealing explicitly with the interface between domestic and international politics. In other words, liberal intergovernmentalism is a synthetic approach that derives from both realist/liberal elements and domestic/international politics.

Single European Act was the first significant amendment of the Treaty of Rome. It was signed in February 1986 and entered into force in July 1987. Its main aim was to set a deadline for the establishment of European Single Market by 1992. It also paved the way for deeper integration by making it easier to decide on EU legislation, strengthening the EU Parliament and laying down the foundations of the EU foreign policy.

In that context, the Treaty Article gives certain examples of the shared powers of the EU and the Member States and those areas are as follows:
• internal market;
• social policy, for the aspects defined in this Treaty;
• economic, social and territorial cohesion;
• agriculture and fisheries, excluding the conservation of marine biological resources;
• environment;
• consumer protection;
• transport;
• trans-European networks;
• energy;
• area of freedom, security and justice;
• common safety concerns in public health matters, for the aspects defined in this Treaty.

The Italian politician Altiero Spinelli was one of the fathers of the European Union. He was the leading figure behind the European Parliament’s proposal for a Treaty on a federal European Union - the so-called ‘Spinelli Plan’. This was adopted in 1984 by an overwhelming majority in the Parliament and provided an important inspiration for the strengthening of the EU Treaties in the 1980s and ‘90s.

The Governing Council of the ECB comprises the members of the Executive Board of the ECB and the Governors of the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro. The Executive Board comprises the President, the Vice-President and four other members

Dynamic Effects of Customs Union: Dynamic effects are long run effects of customs union. They arise due to increased competition within the customs union, higher level of technology, economies of scale, induce to foreign direct investments and better allocation of economic resources. 

From the perspective of functionalism and the new intergovernmentalism, the EU can be identified with a particular form of Union, namely, the EU as a regulatory state.