Period of Accommodation

After more than 20 years of the cold war, tensions began to ebb in the late 1960's. Western European diplomatic and economic relations with Eastern European nations and the Soviet Union improved. In 1973 the two Western European customs unions, the European Community and the European Free Trade Association, allied to allow free trade throughout non-Communist Europe.

In the mid-1970's rising fuel costs and growing inflation began to hurt Europe's external trade. During the 1980's, economic cooperation among western European nations increased and Greece, Spain, and Portugal joined the European Community.