Abstract

In 1991, in the midst of the program to create a liberal Single European Market and in the context of a new Joint Declaration for cooperation with Japan, the European Commission brokered a private deal to restrict Japanese imports into the European Community for nearly a decade (1993–1999). These ‘Elements of Consensus’ developed from the collective efforts of European automakers and their business interest associations – the CCMC and ACEA – to shape the Community’s Common Commercial Policy and insulate themselves from the threat of Japanese competition. Drawing evidence from archival documents, this article reconstructs how European automakers lobbied the Commission for protections and how the Commission used these protections as a means for regional market liberalisation. As a result, it contributes new dimensions to scholarship on the influence of corporations in politics in general and the relationship between business and European integration in particular.

摘要

1991 年，在创建自由单一欧洲市场的计划中，在与日本合作的新联合声明的背景下，欧盟委员会促成了一项私人协议，限制日本进口到欧洲共同体近十年（ 1993–1999）。这些“共识要素”源于欧洲汽车制造商及其商业利益协会（CCMC 和 ACEA）的集体努力，旨在制定共同体的共同商业政策并使自己免受日本竞争的威胁。本文从档案文件中汲取证据，重构了欧洲汽车制造商如何游说委员会寻求保护，以及委员会如何利用这些保护作为区域市场自由化的手段。因此，