This book explores the mechanisms of political representation and accountability in the European political system, against the backdrop of multiple crises in recent years in the economic, financial, security and immigration fields, which have triggered strong tensions and centrifugal drives inside the EU and among its member states. Exploiting a rich set of new ad hoc collected data covering elite and public opinion orientations and party positions, it investigates how the current politicization of European issues and the asymmetries among member states can challenge the sustainability of the European Union. It examines how existing policy tools were found largely unable to neutralize promptly the negative effects of these crises on the populations, economies and security of the Union and how this suggests the need to reconsider overarching theoretical frameworks and a more in-depth analysis of some crucial mechanisms of the European political system and to go beyond some of the dominant scholarly debates of the past decades. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of the European Union and more broadly to comparative European politics and international relations.

International trade policy, including the trade policies of the European Union (EU), has become controversial in recent years. This book illuminates the politicised process of the EU's contemporary trade negotiations. The book uses the notion of 'contentious market regulation' to examine contemporary EU Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs) with industrialised countries: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the USA (TTIP), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada (CETA), the EU-South Korea Agreement (KOREU), and the EU's agreement with Japan (EU-Japan). It also analyses cross-cutting issues affecting trade policy, such as business dimensions, social mobilisation, parliamentary assertion, and investment. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

Investigating the unique EU-CARICOM legal relationship, this book explores the major theme of globalisation, which shapes inter-regional organisations individually and determines their relationship to one another. It evaluates how EU-CARICOM relations have fostered trade, security and other development measures, reflecting on the past, future and present of the Caribbean states that are active in the EU-CARICOM framework. Providing case studies on key issues such as immigration, tax and energy, it examines the impact that the EU-CARICOM has on the slave trade and the deportation of millions of people. Such bitter experiences still indirectly shape culture, hopes and the economic framework of possibilities today; therefore, the focus of the volume is on the issues which the constant stream of globalisation creates. The book assesses many potential impacts that the agenda of the EU and Brexit pending will have upon the EU-CARICOM relationship, given the potential for these to create instability. Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the Sustainable Development Goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM. Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the Sustainable Development Goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM.

Hardbound. After years of debate and a turbulent passage through Congress, The North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect on 1st January 1994. The agreement heralds a new era in North America's economic and political behavior and will dominate the international economic arena of the western hemisphere in the coming decades.In order to understand the implications and challenges of NAFTA on both a domestic and international level, this book examines the corporate, managerial and financial consequences for the participating countries (United States, Canada and Mexico), as well as the wider impact of economic regionalism in the new world order, especially in relation to the European Union.An overview of the agreement itself is followed by analysis from an external perspective and an examination of intra-regional issues.

The European Union widened and deepened integration when it introduced the Single Market and the common currency, increasing the number of member countries from 12 to 28. After a quarter of a century, the 2008 financial and economic crisis opened a new chapter in the history of European integration. Prosperity was replaced by economic crisis and then long stagnation, with ramifications far beyond the economic arena. For the first time, after more than half a century, some countries were almost forced to step out of the Union. History's most frightening migration crisis shocked Europe and led to the strengthening of several anti-integration parties in various countries. This pioneering book discusses the nine crisis elements that could lead to disintegration of the EU. Beginning with the Greek Debt disaster this book delves into the cause of the recent European crisis and then onto the recent immigration influx and its consequences, as well as Britain's exit from the Union. A concluding chapter, based on the facts of positive development during the crises years, gives a cautiously optimistic forecast for the future and asks the question: further integration or disintegration? This volume is of great importance to academics, students and policy makers who have an interest in European politics, political economy and migration.

This comprehensive volume comprises original essays by authors well known for their work on the European Union. Together they provide the reader with an economic analysis of the most important elements of EU law and the mechanisms for decisions within the EU. The Handbook focuses particularly on how the development of EU law negotiates the tension between market integration, national sovereignty and political democracy. The book begins with chapters examining constitutional issues, while further chapters address the establishment of a single market. The volume also addresses sovereign debt problems by providing a detailed analysis of the architecture of the EU's monetary institutions, its monetary policy and their implications. The depth and breadth of the Handbook's coverage make it an essential reference for students, scholars and policymakers interested in the complexities of the European Union. Contributors: H. Brucker, F. Cafaggi, E. Carbonara, T. Eger, M.G. Faure, J. Fidrmuc, N. Garoupa, F. Gomez, M.J. Holler, P.C. Leyens, B. Luppi, A. Nicita, R. Pardolesi, F. Parisi, J. Pelkmans, H.-B. Schafer, H. Siekmann, G. Tsebelis, S. Voigt, H.-J. Wagener

In 2004 the European Union was enlarged with ten new member states, eight of them previously communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. This enlargement was without precedent in the history of the Union and its predecessors. It is still to be seen how well the institutions as well as the citizens of the Union are able to cope with the consequences of this operation.
The authors of this volume evaluate the effect of that enlargement on its legitimacy. They do so by assessing the effects of enlargement on the functioning of the process of political representation in the European Union and on the feelings of the European people towards the Union. This study is mainly based on data from the European Election Study 2004. This study made it for the first time possible to compare the attitudes and behavior of citizens in the enlargement countries, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe, with their counterparts in the older member states.
Some of the findings of this study are counterintuitive. In many respects the effects of enlargements are much smaller than often argued. The party systems of the new member states and the attitudes and behavior of the voters of individual parties are very compatible with their counterparts in the older member states, making further European integration relatively easy. The same can be said about members of the European Parliament. On the other hand the mutual trust of the people in the older and new member states is extremely low and undermines the legitimacy of the enlarged Union.

How has it been possible for Irish political leaders to actively promote two of the largest challenges to Irish nation-statehood: the concession of sovereignty to the European Union and the retraction of the constitutional claim over Northern Ireland? The author of this book argues that such discourses are integrally connected and, what is more, embody the enduring relevance of nationalism in modern Ireland. As the most comprehensive study to date of official discourse in twentieth-century Ireland, this book traces the ways in which nationalism can be simultaneously redefined and revitalised through European integration. The text begins with an overview of the origins and development of Irish official nationalism. It then analyses the redefinition of this nationalism in meeting the challenges to Irish nation-statehood posed by the conflict in Northern Ireland and membership of the EU. New interpretations of the symbolic and practical importance of the island of Ireland have been central to this process. Indeed, the genius of the Irish was to employ innovative EU-inspired concepts in finding agreement with and within Northern Ireland on the one hand whilst, on the other, legitimising further European integration through the notion that it furthers traditional nationalist ideals such as Irish unity. Thus, Irish political leaders were remarkably successful in not only accommodating potent nationalist and pro-European discourses but in making them appear complementary. An over-reliance on this discourse, however, plus a critical failure to adjust it to the conditions it helped to fashion, contributed to the failure of the 'Yes' campaigns in the Irish referendums on the EU Treaties of Nice and Lisbon. The book concludes with an assessment of the reasons for these results and argues that the symbiotic relationship between Irish nationalism and European integration can be redeemed for a new era in EU-member-state relations. This book will appeal to any reader with an interest in the changing dynamics of Ireland's relationship with the European Union and with Northern Ireland, as well as scholars of discourses on identity, territory and governance in Europe. -- .

Britain's relationship with the European Union (EU) is frequently viewed as simple by the media and politicians. In ways - never really explained - the EU has managed to 'take away' Britain's sovereign powers and has the ability to determine much of its legislation. The history of how this has occurred is never discussed, unlike other countries in Europe.How Europe shapes British public policy examines the development of the EU as a sectarian issue in the UK. It discusses the effects of disengagement through the political practices of policy making and the implications that this has had for depoliticisation in government and the civil service. It considers the effects of EU membership in shaping key policy areas - trade and privatisation, the single market and the environment, and subsidiarity in the development and implementation of devolved and decentralised governance.This book gives new and essential insights for students and practitioners of politics, governance and international relations.

The global financial, economic and sovereign debt crisis since 2008 has led to increases in political disaffection among citizens, a loss of legitimacy of political institutions, the discredit of mainstream parties and the rise of extremist or anti-system political alternatives. This comparative volume sheds greater light on this critical juncture in the recent history of the European Union (EU) by focusing on the evolution of attitudes of national political elites. It examines whether the crisis has affected the legitimacy of the EU integration project as perceived by national political elites and, consequently, if the elite consensus that constituted one of the most solid fundamentals supporting that project has been eroded. Analysing these changes across the different dimensions in which support for the EU is organized and its relationship with the evolution of support towards European integration among citizens in member states, the book addresses a basic question: How have these events affected the perceptions of the EU of national political elites? Ultimately, it sheds light on the evolution of the relationship between the perception of the EU and the national contexts, as well as the likely evolution of the project of European integration in the near future. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, EU politics, European integration, political parties, and more broadly to comparative politics, European studies and sociology.

The EU seeks to define a role for itself in power politics while remaining firm in its rejection of power politics. In order to make power compatible with the European project, EU debate has appended a number of progressive adjectives to the word "power," adjectives like "civilian" and "normative," among others. This book asks what is power, such that it can be modified, tamed, and modulated by adjectives, yet remain "powerful"? Loriaux passes EU debate on power through the mill of phenomenological and post-phenomenological analysis, juxtaposing it against writings by Machiavelli, Agamben, Thucydides, Nietzsche, Patocka, and Levinas. The book locates power in "power/play," the theatrical, staged representation of threat that generates aesthetic effect and undecidability. Power/play endows the word "power" with perlocutionary force, which the adjectives of EU "qualified" power actually enhance rather than moderate. Loriaux argues that EU discourse on power therefore risks inviting EU "exceptionalism," or risks lapsing into an expression of EU ressentiment, rather than advancing a new, progressive understanding of "power." If European Union is to remain steadfast in its opposition to power politics, it must represent itself as "anti-power." This book will be of interest to those who work in the area of EU foreign policy, as well as to those who have a more general theoretical interest in the concept of power.

This volume brings together contributions that conceptualize and measure EU perceptions in the strategic regions around the world in the aftermath of the UK referendum. Contributors assess the evolution of EU perceptions in each location and discuss how their findings may contribute to crafting foreign policy options for the "new EU-27". Brexit is very likely to have a substantial bearing on EU external policy, not merely because of the loss of a major member state with a special relationship to the US and the Commonwealth, but also because it challenges the integrational success story that the EU strives to embody. This book thus serves a dual purpose: on the one hand it broadens the recent studies on Brexit by focusing on external partners' reactions, and on the other it allows for an innovative evaluation of policy options for EU foreign policy. Based on a solid theoretical foundation and empirically rich data, it constitutes an innovative and timely addition to the evolving debate on Brexit and its consequences. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European politics, Brexit, British politics, EU politics, comparative politics and international relations.

Redefinitions of EU borders (enlargements, Brexit), geopolitical challenges (conflicts, migrations, terrorism, environmental risks) and the economic and financial crises have triggered debates on the common values that hold European countries and citizens together, justify public action and ensure the sustainability of European governance. This book discusses the genesis of and increasing references to "European values", their appropriation by diverse groups of actors and their impact on public action. It argues that European values are a broad and flexible symbolic repertoire, instrumental to serving diverging ends, and a resource for both negotiation and conflicts. Looking at the broader picture, the book reflects on the role of values in the institutionalization of the EU as a political order and paves the way to an assessment of its singularity in comparison with other polities across time and space. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU politics, comparative politics, IR, public policy, sociology and cultural studies.

Thoroughly revised, the seventh edition of this accessible and highly respected text provides a rigorous yet digestible introduction to the European Union. Additionally, it authoritatively explains developments that continue to bring challenges to this powerful institution in times of great political change. Key features: Clearly covers the history, governing institutions, and policies of the EU; Fully updated with new tables, figures, and photographs; In-text features such as Chapter Overviews, Questions to Consider, and Further Reading encourage deeper research and debate; Sustained discussion of transformative and historical change in the upheaval of Brexit and its ramifications, and the future relationship of the UK with the EU; Through reflection on destabilizing issues such as immigration and the years of refugee crisis in Europe, the continued crisis in the eurozone, tensions with Poland and Hungary, Euroskepticism, Russia, and the rise of populism; Increased coverage throughout of women or minorities within the EU. Jonathan Olsen presents the EU as one of the world's economic and political superpowers, which has brought far-reaching changes to the lives of Europeans and has helped its member states to take a newly assertive role on the global stage. Essential reading for students of European and EU politics, this book offers an up-to-the-minute look at both the opportunities and existential threats facing the EU.

The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which the end of the Cold War led to Europeanisation in the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The analysis takes into consideration previous studies on Europeanisation and its impact on the transformation of national security and defence, and attempts to account for the development of Europeanisation and related mechanisms. These mechanisms, which have been described as framing mechanisms and negative integration, incorporate all the major relevant factors identified here (i.e. a common Strategic Culture, new security identity, domestic political decision-making, industrial base and defence-spending decline) that contributed to the realisation of the CSDP. The relevance of these factors for CSDP Europeanisation is examined through an historical and empirical analysis, and the relationship between the CSDP and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is also explored. This approach facilitates analysis of the debate concerning the emergence of the CSDP and throws light on the political shift that led European Union (EU) leaders to support the CSDP. Another aspect of this study is the empirical examination of the dynamics and limitations of the European defence sector. The changes which took place in this sector facilitated the emergence of the CSDP and are therefore analysed in the light of globalisation issues, economies of scale, economic crises, military autonomy, new security strategy and Research and Development (R&D) impact. This book will be of interest to students of European security, EU politics, defence studies and International Relations.

This volume examines the EU's Global Strategy in relation to human security approaches to conflict. Contemporary conflicts are best understood as a social condition in which armed groups mobilise sectarian and fundamentalist sentiments and construct a predatory economy through which they enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary citizens. This volume provides a timely contribution to debates over the role of the EU on the global stage and its contribution to peace and security, at a time when these discussions are reinvigorated by the adoption of the EU Global Strategy. It discusses the significance of the Strategic Review and the Global Strategy for the re-articulation of EU conflict prevention, crisis management, peacebuilding, and development policies in the next few years. It also addresses the key issues facing EU security in the 21st century, including the conflicts in Ukraine, Libya and Syria, border security, cyber-security and the role of the private security sector. The book concludes by proposing that the EU adopts a second-generation human security approach to conflicts, as an alternative to geopolitics or the 'War on Terror', taking forward the principles of human security and adapting them to 21st-century realities. This book will be of interest to students of human security, European foreign and security policy, peace and conflict studies, global governance and IR in general.

During the European elections of 2014, one of the main issues raised by the media was the electoral performance of so called 'populist parties'. The electorate confirmed its deep dissatisfaction with mainstream political parties, voting for far right parties in parliamentary elections in Northern Europe (Austria, Denmark, Sweden), Eastern Europe (Hungary, where the deeply anti-Semitic Jobbik party gained votes) and in France (where the French National Front won about a quarter of the vote), while in the Southern European countries, battered by austerity policies, it was the radical right and left in Greece (Golden Dawn and Syriza) and the radical left in Spain (Podemos) that obtained excellent scores. This book examines the growing trend towards far and extreme right populism that has emerged prominently in Northern (Finland), Western (Austria, Denmark, France, the UK), Southern (Greece, Italy) and Central/Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Bulgaria) since the 1990s. Providing a critical understanding of current European trends and analysing the complex phenomena covered by the notion of populism, this book will be of interest to students and scholars researching right-wing politics, as well as European politics more generally.

The book analyzes some of the key issues confronted by European policy makers. These issues include effective multilateralism; common foreign and security policy; multiculturalism; climate change; security challenges; rise of populism; Brexit; the Ukrainian crisis; relations with Russia; standoff in Catalonia; as well as migration and the refugee crisis. The book is a unique attempt to understand these issues from an outside perspective by established scholars of European Studies in India.

The euro crisis made Europe's stateless currency falter. This book retraces and interprets the ways in which the crisis impacted the unique institutional set-up of Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that the crisis propelled the European continent towards the institutionalization of an unprecedented form of centralized authority: Europe's New Fiscal Union. Diving into the central functions of fiscal surveillance, financial assistance, lending of last resort and banking resolution, the book reveals how a covert and convoluted mutualisation process occurred in the shadow of the euro crisis management. Based on 62 interviews conducted by the author with senior policy-makers in Brussels, Frankfurt, Helsinki and Rome, the book claims that Europe's New Fiscal Union is largely unsettled and still unstable. It therefore engages with the challenges arising from the patchwork of newly adopted rules, instruments and bodies, suggesting crucial reform steps to make EMU sustainable.

First published in 1998, this volume asked the question, what is Europe?. What is Finland's position in Europe?. The author tries to give an answer to these questions by defining first Europe in terms of its key political traditions and then locating Finland into this map of historical ideas. The ultimate purpose of this analysis of historical ideas is very pragmatic as it tries to find an answer to the core problems of European unification. Why are different European countries at differing levels of readiness as far as the project of unification is concerned?. The answer can be found again in political traditions.

Written by one of the premier scholars on the European Union and hailed as the best undergraduate text on the subject, this book has been thoroughly revised and updated to include the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Clear and comprehensive, it 'demystifies' one of the world's most important and least understood institutions. Roy H. Ginsberg contextualizes European integration through the foundation blocks of history, law, economics, and politics. He then breaks the EU down into its components so that they can be understood individually and in relation to the whole. Reconstructing the EU as a single polity, Ginsberg evaluates the EU's domestic and foreign policies and their effects on Europeans and non-Europeans alike. The author thus challenges students to see what the European Union truly represents: a unique experiment in regional cooperation and a remarkable model of conflict resolution for the world's troubled regions.

The European Union is increasingly being asked to manage crises inside and outside the Union. From terrorist attacks to financial crises, and natural disasters to international conflicts, many crises today generate pressures to collaborate across geographical and functional boundaries. What capacities does the EU have to manage such crises? Why and how have these capacities evolved? How do they work and are they effective? This book offers an holistic perspective on EU crisis management. It defines the crisis concept broadly and examines EU capacities across policy sectors, institutions and agencies. The authors describe the full range of EU crisis management capacities that can be used for internal and external crises. Using an institutionalization perspective, they explain how these different capacities evolved and have become institutionalized. This highly accessible volume illuminates a rarely examined and increasingly important area of European cooperation.

How has the evolution and transformation of the Common Market affected the legal concept of State aid? How has State aid adapted to the development of the European Union? These questions and more are answered in Juan Jorge Piernas Lopez's examination of the historical, political, constitutional, and economical events that have affected the development of State aid in the EU. Examining three key, interwoven arguments, this book provides a richer understanding of current formulas which depict the concept of aid through the prism of policy and enforcement considerations. First, the book demonstrates that the concept of aid is a 'living instrument' that has been applied in accordance with the main policy priorities of the European Commission. Second, contrary to what has been affirmed in other literature, the evolution of this concept has been influenced by the broader advancement of the case law of the Court of Justice in different periods of the integration process. Third, the author contends that the study of the evolution of the concept of aid in light of policy and case law provides a holistic outlook valuable to the decision making process of difficult cases. In this regard, the book provides criteria to interpret and discuss cases including Sloman Neptun, Philip Morris, and Azores, beyond the analysis traditionally adopted in this field.

According to Tom Gallagher, Romania's predatory rulers, the heirs of the sinister communist dictator Ceausescu, have inflicted a humiliating defeat on the European Union. He argues convincingly that Brussels was tricked into offering full membership to this Balkan country in return for substantial reforms which its rulers then refused to carry out. This book unmasks the failure of the EU to match its visionary promises of transforming Romania with the shabby reality. Benefiting from access to internal reports and leading figures involved in a decade of negotiations, it shows how Eurocrats were outwitted by unscrupulous local politicians who turned the EU's multi-level decision-making processes into a laughing-stock. The EU's famous 'soft power' turned out to be a mirage, as it was unable to summon up the willpower to insist that this key Balkan state embraced its standards of behaviour in the political and economic realms. The book, now available in paperback, unravels policy failures in the areas of justice, administrative and agricultural reform and shows how Romania moved backwards politically during the years of negotiations. -- .