The construction of Europe is often teleologically addressed as a result of an unstoppable trend towards federalism. Another angle on this history gives access to another logic: that of a European kind of nation-state which considers European integration not as an element in its decline, but as a tool to reorganise its power. This new youth for the old nation-state was linked as much to the historical context of the 1950s–1970s as to the specific rules of policy-making and to the economic regulation focus of the European Community.