The EEC's dual objectives were political and economic. From a political standpoint, the union would take a step towards the unification of Europe. The EEC also sought to change the conditions of manufacturing and trade between members of the community.
During the 1980s, Western Europe experienced persistent rates of low productivity and high unemployment due to the fragmentation of its capital and labor markets, as well as government regulation. In 1985, the community established the Single Market Program, which put forth several hundred measures to integrate and deregulate European markets
As the integration of Europe gained momentum, EEC member nations studied the impact of a single currency on the Single Market. The result was the Maastricht Treaty, presented in the Dutch town of Maastricht in 1991, which proposed the replacement of the community's dozen currencies with a single currency (ECU) and the creation of a European Central Bank.