Over the past decade European economic integration has seen considerable institutional success, but the economic performance of the EU has been varied. While macroeconomic stability has improved and an emphasis on cohesion preserved, the EU economic system has not delivered satisfactory growth performance.
This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU s economic performance, examines the challenges facing the EU in the coming years, and presents a series of recommendations.
The report views Europe's unsatisfactory growth performance during the last decades as a symptom of its failure to transform into an innovation-based economy. It has now become clear that the context in which economic policies have been developed has changed fundamentally over the past thirty years. A system built around the assimilation of existing technologies, mass production generating economics of scale, and an industrial structure dominated by large firms with stable markets and long term employment patterns no longer delivers in the world of today, characterized by economic globalization and strong external competition. What is needed now is more opportunity for new entrants, greater mobility of employees within and across firms, more retraining, greater reliance on market financing, and higher investment in both R&D and higher education. This requires a massive and urgent change in economic policies in Europe.

This thoroughly researched, well-documented book presents a theoretically guided empirical analysis of developing and implementing gender equality policies in the European Union (EU). In spite of a wealth of research, many questions have long remained unanswered and these are addressed here. The author developed an international relations theoretical framework in order to explain the changing fortunes of women's activism, the changing attitudes of European institutions and the behaviour of member states in a multi-level setting. The book traces the history and development of EU gender policy to the present day and will be inspirational reading for those interested in European governance and the European Union, as well as gender issues and political sociology.

The European Commission is an organization which has come to fascinate or repulse a range of national politicians, journalists and social scientists. In contrast to the prevailing image of the Commission as a 'bureaucrat's paradise', however, and by using the results of original research, this book deliberately sets out to investigate this organization's relationship to politics. It does so first by developing a variety of case-studies (health, development aid, preparations for Eastern enlargement, etc.) as a means of studying the relationships, networks and interdependencies which link commissioners and Commission officials to national politicians, civil servants and interest groups. Second, by looking in detail at how the Commission publicizes its work, notably through producing public information and liaising with the media, fresh light is shone upon the complex question of the Commission's legitimacy. Politics and the European Commission provides a framework for generating new information about, and interpretations of, the power struggles at the heart of the EU.

Governing Europe is the first book to systematically link Michel Foucault's hypotheses on power and 'governmentality' with the study of European integration. Through a series of empirical encounters that spans the fifty-year history of European integration, it explores both the diverse political dreams that have framed means and ends of integration and the political technologies that have made 'Europe' a calculable, administrable domain. The book illustrates how a genealogy of European integration differs from conventional approaches. By suspending the assumption that we already know what/where Europe is, it opens a space for analysis where we can ask: how did Europe come to be governed as this and not that? The themes covered by this book include: * the different constructions of Europe within discourses of modernization, democratization, insecurity and 'governance' * the imprint of modernism, liberalism, ordoliberalism, neoliberalism and crime on the identity of the European Community/European Union * the historical relationship between European government and specific technologies of power, technologies as diverse as planning, price control, transparency and benchmarking.

Today s Europe is marked by an amazing pace of integration. The European Union now consists of twenty five member states, however there is confusion and disagreement about its future design. Making The European Polity investigates how the European Union should develop and organize itself and offers a reflexive approach to integration based on the theory of communicative action. It conceives of the EU as a law based supranational polity lacking the identity of a people as well as the coercive means of a state and argues that it is a polity with an organized capacity to act, but no sole apex of authority. Making an important contribution to the theoretical discussions on the EU, these contributors explore a range of issues including legitimacy, post-national democracy and integration and provide in-depth analyses of social and tax policy, foreign policy, identity formation, the reform process and the constitutional effects of enlargement. This book will appeal to all political scientists and particularly to students and researchers of European Politics.

Sarah Niblock and David Machin bring us a much needed book that bridges the gap between journalistic theory and practice. The authors respond to a recent and growing recognition in academia and indeed journalism of the importance of reflective practice based on consultation of the sociological literature on journalism and the media industry. There is a distinct lack of up-to-date publications on journalists at work, the most recent ethnographies having been published in the 1980s. This book will provide detailed ethnographies of eight different news production settings. Each chapter follows two news workers through their daily routines, detailing the exact nature of their jobs, the constraints they may encounter, how they cope with those constraints and finally to what extent their work can be understood through reference to the sociological theory and vice versa. Chapters include "News agencies: something to please everyone," "The roving reporter," "Photojournalism" and "The new reporter learning the ropes."
The book is set in context by two opening chapters on the "History of News" and the "Sociology of News gathering." The former holds the premise that it is impossible to understand journalistic practice, the workings of the industry, or news values and the morality of "objectivity" without looking at the way that the news industry has grown up over the past 100 or so years. The emphasis of this chapter is very much on looking forward to the ethnographies which follow. "Sociology of news gathering" similarly details the sociological theory relevant to the ensuing chapters, theories which will be constantly referred back to throughout the course of the book. The section will becomprised of a review of the sociological literature on news agencies, news gathering, news values, the public sphere and tabloidisation.
This book will be an invaluable and much-needed real-life account of reporting in the context of contemporary newsrooms. For students taking practical units in news reporting, sub-editing and even law and ethics, this text will provide the type of concrete examples they will need to consolidate their skills-based training. The ethnographies will provide case-studies against which they can compare their experiences. Most journalism and media courses require their students to complete work-based assignments which are assessed through reflective reports. This book will help students prepare for their placements by gaining a strong sense of the working environment and tasks. It will also help students raise questions about their placements to form the basis of their reports. These reports expect them to synthesise the practice of journalism with the critical accounts of the profession by academics. No other journalism text does this.

Managing a Multilevel Foreign Policy is a helpful resource for enhancing current understanding of the European Union as an emerging actor in the global system. Analyzing the role of the EU in international affairs, Foradori, Rosa, and Scartezzini seek to foster understanding of the complexity of the present international conditions and the ways in which the EU is responding to threats and opportunities from the outside world. The numerous contributors examine the latest developments in the fields of EU foreign, security, and defense policies, providing a complete overview of the ways in which the EU has grown as a global actor with a significant impact on international affairs.

This new study revisits the work of the late Ernst Haas, assessing his relevance for contemporary European integration and its disparities.
With his seminal book, "The Uniting of Europe" Haas laid the foundations for one of the most prominent paradigms of European integration neo-functionalism. He engaged in inductive reasoning to theorize the dynamics of the European integration process that led from the Treaty of Paris in 1951 to the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The Treaty of Rome set the constitutional framework for a Common Market.
Today, a second Treaty of Rome may lay the foundation for a European Constitution that embeds the Common Market in a European polity. Unfortunately, Haas will not be able to witness this path-breaking step in the development of a European political community, which he so aptly theorized almost five decades ago. This is all the more regrettable since students of European integration are more than ever challenged to tackle a major empirical puzzle: After50 years of European integration, the member states managed to adopt a single currency and to develop common policies and institutions on justice and home affairs. The integration of foreign policy and defense, by contrast, is still lagging behind. This text delivers sharp insights into these issues.
This book, previously published as a special issue of the "Journal of European Public" "Policy," will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international relations, the European Union, European politics and Public Policy.

This collection provides a balanced evaluation of multi-level governance. Written by international experts of policy-making in the European Union, each contribution builds on common conceptual definitions, critically debating their adaptation to policy-specific contexts and investigating their usefulness for conducting empirical research. This engaging text uses case studies to identify the specific changes that have occurred in power relations across different levels of the EU system. With varying emphasis on state and non-state actors, on country comparisons and international processes, the reader is invited to join a fruitful dialogue among the contributors about the symbiotic relationship of multi-level analysis with other conceptual innovations such as transnational regulation, network formation or market internationalization. This book confronts sophisticated theoretical reasoning with the actual realities of policy-making and is therefore essential reading for all those interested in the risks and opportunities of a comparative-interdisciplinary approach to European governance.

The European Union's "democratic deficit" and ways that might be found to resolve it are hot issues in both academic debate and practical politics. "Democratizing the European Union" offers a fresh approach to this subject by bringing together a diverse range of authors who have been actively involved either in analyzing the activities of the European Union or participating in them.

The contributors go beyond a primarily institutional approach by highlighting issues having to do with values, participation, and exclusion. Collectively this volume also transcends the limitations of abstract theory. Embracing a range of perspectives, and including discussions of major contemporary challenges, such as enlargement and economic and monetary union, this book contains a detailed analysis of the response of New Labour to the democratization debate. The contributions include: Sue Cohen, "Social Solidarity in the Delors Period"; Sverker Gustavsson, "Reconciling Suprastatism and Accountability: A View from Sweden"; Stefano Fella, "A Europe of the Peoples? New Labour and Democratizing the EU"; John Lambert and Catherine Hoskyns, "How Democratic is the European Parliament?"; Valerio Lintner, "Controlling Monetary Union"; Mary Kaldor, "Eastern Enlargement and Democracy"; Richard Kuper, "Democratization: A Constitutionalizing Process"; and Catherine Hoskyns, "Democratizing the EU: Evidence and Argument."

"Democratizing the European Union" is essential reading for all those with an interest in the EU and broader questions of democracy. It is also particularly useful for students of European Studies and practitioners involved in EU policymaking and lobbying.

This new volume develops a conceptual framework for considering and evaluating the role(s) played by the EU in international politics, drawing upon the literatures of role analysis, international relations and European integration.
It pays particular attention to five aspects of role analysis: role conceptions, origins of roles, role institutionalization, role performance and role impact. These form themes running through the volume and are dealt with in individual contributions as appropriate. It also presents fresh applications and empirical case studies that support the conceptual framework and demonstrate the uses of role analysis in relation to the EU and its international activities, and its capacity to inform investigation from different perspectives and standpoints.
By taking this approach and by providing both conceptual and empirical argument, this book delivers an innovative perspective on the analysis of the European Union as an international actor, and on the ways in which EU actions are formed and have impact. It also establishes a research agenda based on rigorous development of the framework for role analysis, and demonstrates the ways in which this agenda might be furthered.

Since the end of the Cold War the European Union has gradually expended its external relations and foreign policies and become a global actor in world politics. During the last decade interregionalism has become a key component of the EU's external relations and foreign policies. In fact, the EU has quickly become the hub of a large number of interregional arrangements with a number of regions around the world. Promoting regional and interregional relations not only justifies and enhances the EU's own existence and efficiency as a global 'actor', the strategy also promote the legitimacy and status of other regions, giving rise to a deepening of cross-cutting interregional relations in trade and economic relations, political dialogue, development cooperation, cultural relations and security cooperation. This collection analyses the EU's role in the world and as a global actor, with a particular focus on the origins, causes and strength (or absence) of interregionalism in the EU's external relations and foreign policies towards some of the most important regions around the world: Africa, Asia, South America, North America and Central-Eastern Europe. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

The European Union is one of the world's biggest economies. However, its role as an international actor is ambiguous and it's not always able to transform its political power into effective external policies. The development of an 'assertive' European Union challenges the image of an internal project aimed at economic integration and international relations theories based on unitary state actors. This book systematically links the EU's external relations to existing political theories, showing how existing theories need to be modified in order to deal with specific characteristics of the EU as an international actor.

The European Union (EU) is in a state of transformation with its constitutional future the subject of much heated debate. This book provides a durable, authoritative and comprehensive account of constitutional development, examining the pivotal roles of law and judicial politics in establishing the EU constitutional edifice. Michael Longo demonstrates and substantiates the arguments for and against constitutionalisation through the development of a theoretical framework drawing on theories and empirical research in both law and political science to understand this new process of European Integration.

In May 2004, eight former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe acceded to the European Union.

This new book examines the Eastern expansion of the EU through a tripartite structure, developing an empirical, conceptual and institutional analysis to provide a rounded and substantive account of EU enlargement, with new theoretical insights. The foreword is by written by Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament.

John O'Brennan also explores:

• why the EU decided to expand its membership
• what factors drove this process forward?
• how did the institutional environment of the EU influence enlargement outcomes?

In this context he comprehensively covers the role of the European Council, Commission and Parliament.

This important volume will of great interest to students and scholars of European politics and European Union studies.

This book presents a conceptual framework for analysing the definitions of State aid and subsidy in EC and WTO law. This is done through a comparative analysis, examining the coherence of the conceptual understanding of the crucial, but still elusive, issue of the definition of subsidy. The first, important finding is that the topic is not only technical but raises more fundamental questions about the objectives of subsidy control in a given legal system and, more radically, about the goals of that system itself. The analysis does not only concentrate on the state of the law but critically looks forward offering suggestions for new interpretations and law reform. The book focuses on the substantive provisions of the EC and WTO relating to what are identified by the author as the core properties of a notion of subsidy, ie a form of public action, the grant of an economic advantage and the ensuing impact on the competitive process. The current regulation in EC and WTO law is analysed, compared and assessed in depth, and tested against a baseline represented by of a notion of subsidy inserted in a subsidy regulation pursuing certain objectives. Drawing on the results of the comparative exercise, the book argues that both systems can learn valuable lessons from each other to achieve a greater coherence and a more efficient regulatory system.

The deepening social and territorial divisions within Europe are examined in this comprehensive and authoritative book. Using a global perspective, the contributors argue that social and territorial cleavages are inextricably linked, and that only a detailed examination of economic, political and geographical differences can lead to a clearer understanding of the social tensions and inequalities that exist across Europe. Topics covered include: gender; age; social integration; citizenship; and migration and race in Europe's complex and changing territorial system.

First published in 1999, this volume why Europe's arguably most successful political party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, become so divided over European integration. Why were its grass-roots so reluctant to embrace EU membership and why did a Social Democratic government decide to stand aside from the launch of the single European currency? What connection is there between Europe and the Swedish model of political economy? While much has been written in English on Swedish Social Democracy, little of this literature has dealt with its difficulties during the 1990s and especially with its acute problems over Europe. This book fills that gap. Using original, primary data, Nicholas Aylott addresses the topic from macro and micro-political perspectives, taking account of historical, cultural, geopolitical and economic constraints, but also the interests and calculations of key individuals at critical junctures. It places the experience of Swedish Social Democracy into a broad comparative framework, drawing especially from the experiences of its Scandinavian sister parties. Up-to-date analysis of the party's debate on EMU is included.

First published in 1998, this volume was formally completed in July 1994, but completing the structure of the market is not all the same thing as having a genuine Single Market. This book explores the difficulties inherent in the concept of the Single Market in Insurance, as well as the practical difficulties of implementation. It looks to the future of the Single Market as well as at the present. It should be of interest to lawyers studying law or EC law, as well as to economists and political scientists interested in the development of Project Europe.

The European Union's Constitutional treaty has been much talked about, usually critically, by those who see it either as a blueprint for a centralized and protectionist super-state or as the triumph of Anglo-Saxon economics that will undermine the European social model and the institutions which support it. It has created great controversy throughout Europe yet it has been little read, notably in the United Kingdom, partly because the text has not been widely circulated.
"Understanding the European Constitution "seeks to redress this imbalance and is the only book in English to give the reader an impartial and concise view of this Treaty. It is an invaluable tool to understanding the Treaty and includes a copy of the core document in full, a detailed and expert analysis of its main themes and a brief introduction to the rest of the treaty. The issues that are covered include:
*How and why the treaty came about
*How its content compares to the European Union's existing treaties
*Why it has attracted so much controversy
*The difficulties in trying to understand it, notably its dual status as treaty and constitution
*The way that the treaty will be ratified and the issues that will figure in this ratification debate
"Understanding the European Constitution" is written in uncomplicated language with explanatory tables and a glossary by two long standing students of the treaties. It is essential reading for all students with interests in Politics, the European Union and Law.

Including specially commissioned articles and produced in association with JCMS, The Journal of Common Market Studies, covers the key developments in the European Union, its member states, and acceding and/or applicant countries in 2018. Written by leading experts in their respective fields covering a wide array of political, economic and legal issues Includes Brigid Laffan's Annual Lecture on the emergence of the EU-27 in light of Brexit Other articles touch upon theoretical explanations of the unity shown by the remaining 27 Member States during the Brexit negotiations; the structural issues affecting the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and how to address them effectively The Annual Review is the most up-to-date and authoritative source of information for practitioners, scholars, students and researchers of European integration as well as for general readers who simply want to know more about the European Union and have a pluralism of voices

The European social agenda is at a crucial stage. This book describes the Action Plans on Social Inclusion submitted to the European Union by national governments in June 2001 and investigates the indicators that can be used to assess social progress. It deals in a new way with key issues for social policy in Europe: poverty, income inequality, non-monetary deprivation, low educational attainment, unemployment, joblessness, poor health, poor housing and homelessness, functional illiteracy and innumeracy.

"As the most comprehensive scholarly venture to use the memory concept for a broad assessment of the dark legacies of Nazism, Communism, and World War II for a common European identity, the volume has no equal. It overwhelms the reader with a plethora of both new and well established information and reflection...The overall direction coincides with the current trend towards internationalization of national histories. It can be considered a strong contribution to this important and worthwhile trend." . Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania

An examination of the role of history and memory is vital in order to better understand why the grand design of a United Europe-with a common foreign policy and market yet enough diversity to allow for cultural and social differences-was overwhelmingly turned down by its citizens. The authors argue that this rejection of the European constitution was to a certain extent a challenge to the current historical grounding used for further integration and further demonstrates the lack of understanding by European bureaucrats of the historical complexity and divisiveness of Europe's past. A critical European history is therefore urgently needed to confront and re-imagine Europe, not as a harmonious continent but as the outcome of violent and bloody conflicts, both within Europe as well as with its Others. As the authors show, these dark shadows of Europe's past must be integrated, and the fact that memories of Europe are contested must be accepted if any new attempts at a United Europe are to be successful.

Ma gorzata Pakier has recently received a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Department of History and Civilization. She has published articles in Polish and English on discourses and images of the Holocaust in popular culture and film.

Bo Strath was Professor of Contemporary History at the European University Institute in Florence (1997-2007) and is currently Academy of Finland Distinguished Professor of Nordic, European and World History at Helsinki University. His research concentrates on questions of modernity and the use of history in a European and global perspective."

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the European Union is an increasingly dense transnational social and political space. More and more non-governmental organisations develop transnational links, which are usually more intensive within the EU, even if they often extend beyond its borders to the wider world. This multi-disciplinary volume explores the importance of these structures, actors and relations for EU and European governance in the context of the theoretical debate about European integration in the social sciences. This book delivers: theoretical chapters examining and discussing the main conceptual perspectives to studying the transnational EU to provide a current overview empirical case studies of transnationalism in practice on transnational party, trade union and police cooperation to transnational education policy-making and transnational consensus-building in EMU governance. This volume will be of great interest to students in social sciences, contemporary history and law.

Developed and significantly expanded from a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy, this volume draws on the insights from the recently emerging theoretically-informed literature on the EU's eastern enlargement and complements these studies with original articles that combine a theoretical approach with comparative analyses. The expert contributors focus on the broader theoretical debates and their implications for the enlargement of the EU, as well as placing the enlargement of the EU within the broader context of the expansion of international organizations and the study of institutions in international relations.
This volume is a key reference text presenting the 'state of the art' of theoretical approaches to the study of European enlargement.