All in all, these developments are particularly noteworthy given the already high degree of openness of the euro area countries, suggesting that we are not witnessing the creation of a “fortress Europe” but that the European integration is perfectly complementary with the global integration. 1  See, among others, Engel and Rogers (2004) “European Product Market Integration After the Euro,” Economic Policy, July pp.
347-384, and McCallum (1995) “National Borders Matter: Canada-US Regional Trade Patterns”, American Economic Review 85 (3): 615-623. For a description of the European process of integration see Mongelli, F.P., E. Dorrucci, and I. Agur (2005) “What does European institutional integration tell us about trade integration?”, ECB Occasional Paper Series no 40.