Making States for the Single Market European Integration and the Reshaping of Economic States in the Peripheries of Europe

European integration has transformed states in Europe's peripheries. It deprived them from the traditional means of autonomously managing development, imposed on them institutions defending the integrity of the regional market from domestic actors, and provided them, in exchange, with EU-level development policies. State restructuring in the two peripheries relied on different strategies and these differences pushed the evolution of the economic state in the two peripheries in different directions. The two parts of Europe now face different developmental dilemmas. Despite their differences, neither the Eastern, nor the Southern states have the capacity to get in synch the triple challenge of integration: playing by the uniform regional rules, improving their positions in the European markets and extending the range of domestic beneficiaries of integration. While the ensuing economic and political tensions might endanger regional integration, EU-level capacities for addressing the developmental problems of the peripheries are in short supply.