Almost from the very outset the development of the common foreign policy and establishing the common defense have been the main aims of the European Community, but the real cooperation in these fields turned out to be quite complex and run into certain obstacles.
As part of the European Community, the member states realize the necessity to comply with the common policy in order to become a full-fledged member on the political arena, but this does not take their fears to lose their national sovereignty and to give up some political advantages acquired through either the geographical position or the economic or political and military peculiarities.
This explains to a certain extent the complexity of the consensus in searching process between the West European countries in the sphere of the common foreign and security policy.
The integration process in Europe was concentrated on the economic cooperation in the first place.
Later on the leaders of the West European countries recognized the readiness of the European countries to take a common position on the political and economic aspects of the security and the importance of the foreign policy cooperation in regard to the economic one was for the first time officially admitted.
The development of the foreign policy pillar in the pre-Maastricht period clearly distinguished the sphere of competencies of the EU and NATO. The signing of the Single European Act allowed the EU country members to occupy the common position and coordinate their foreign policy.
All this allowed the cooperation in the political sphere, which was evolving in two directions: first, conducting the coordinated foreign policy and secondly, ensuring the common security policy with a prospect of establishing the common defense as its separate pillar.
Emergence and Development of the Foreign Political Dimension of the EU: PreMaastricht Period