NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Volume 10 Number 2 Article 4 Spring 1985 The System of European Political Cooperation: A Brief Explanation Daniel T. Murphy Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj Part of the Commercial Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Daniel T. Murphy, The System of European Political Cooperation: A Brief Explanation, 10 N.C. J. INT'L L. 383 (1985). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj/vol10/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The System of European Political Cooperation: A Brief Explanation Daniel T.Murphy * Although the European Economic Communities more fre- quently are taking what appear to be institutional positions on for- eign policy and political issues of grave concern to the world community,' it is not inappropriate for them to do so. The long- term goals of the Communities in part are political,2 as expressed in the Treaty of Rome.3 In the preamble to the Treaty the signatories state that they are "[dietermined to lay the foundations of an even closer union among the European peoples."' 4 Article 2 provides, in part, that one of the tasks of the Common Market is to promote "closer relations between the states belonging to it."' 5 One of the mechanisms by which these positions are formalized and articulated is through a shadow organization-an extra-Communities struc- ture-referred to as European Political Cooperation (EPC).