From the introduction:
This game is set in a series of United Nations (UN) sponsored conferences that began in Geneva, Switzerland in 1979 and continued for over a decade. The goal is to negotiate a treaty governing air pollutants transported across international borders within Europe. The game includes negotiations that followed in Helsinki, Finland in 1984 and in Sophia, Bulgaria in 1987. The result of these negotiations was the Long Range Transport Air Pollution Treaty that continues in Europe to the present day.
The events that unfold in this game occur against the backdrop of larger negotiations within Europe on forming a European Economic Community (The EEC). The full details of these changes will become apparent as the game proceeds. But the fact that nations are being asked to give up some control over their energy and transportation sectors to support the general welfare of the region marks a turning point in the national sovereignty of these nations. At the time the negotiations begin, the idea of the European Union is just that, an idea in progress. National borders are still patrolled with checkpoints and each nation has its own currency. In fact, air pollution is about the only thing which moves freely between the nations and across the Iron Curtain. The issue of transnational pollution was possibly the first area where national sovereignty was sacrificed for the common European good.