Two oil crises, in 1973 and 1979, undermined the European economies and caused unemployment, recession and de-industrialization. They revealed the rigidity of the structure and required the reform of the EEC. The election of the European Parliament through universal suffrage in 1979 reinforced its control role.

The Single Act was a response to the crisis: it aimed to create a European zone without interior borders for more than 300 million consumers. This great market involved to secure the foreign borders, progressively set since the Schengen Agreement in 1985.

Europe attracted the Southern countries emerging from dictatorship and became a model for the dissidents in the East.