This book provides an innovative examination of the European Union as it departs from its path of integration. Indeed, so far has it departed that it could be described as having entered a new reality. The original reality was that captured in the evocative phrase in its founding agreement, the Treaty of Rome, that it should be an ever-closer union of peoples. Largely that was the path followed until the 1990s, but by the early twenty-first century there have been signs that it is turning into an ordinary international organization in which there is little overriding sense of purpose. This book discusses the indications of this development and explains why it happened only a decade or so after a peak of popular enthusiasm in the early 1990s. The question was whether the EU would become less important for the member states, as seemed to be the case for the British, or whether the German pattern, in which the EU remained important, would prevail. This book concludes that the former is more likely in part because of problems with the policies of the European Union and its conduct, but more specifically because of the current prevailing political culture in Western Europe. Paul Taylor warns that the current problems are underestimated and that there is the risk of casually throwing away the considerable achievements of the integration process. The End of European Integration will be of interest to all those with an interest in European integration, whether for or against. It will also interest students of European studies, European politics, and politics and international relations in general.
This book analyzes the causes of five dilemmas that are shaping European integration— populism, migration, the Euro, Brexit, and enlargement.
Over the years the forward march of the European Union has been widely misunderstood. James Heartfield explains that the rise of the EU is driven by the decline in political participation.
Analysing the conditions for European integration, this book applies a citizens' or 'bottom-up' perspective on the integration process.
Exploring the Maastricht Treaty process and the politics of European integration, the author argues that the end of the cold war and German unification have created a new set of geopolitical realities in Europe that have affected the nature ...
This book seeks to reassess the role of Europe in the end of the Cold War and the process of German unification.
The book tries to spell out the origin, the shape, and the implications of this empire. The aim of this book is to suggest a novel way of thinking about the European Union and the process of European integration.
A second edition of this book is now available. This accessible text provides a concise political history of European integration from the end of World War II to the present.
Providing a more realistic historical understanding of European integration, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, history and European studies.
This book gives a complex description and discussion of today’s populist attacks against the European Union (EU) following the financial crisis of 2008, which opened the floodgates of dissatisfaction, and the migration crisis which ...
Written in a clear and jargon-free style, the book explores: The context of European integration and expansion The relations between the European Union and its member states The institutional evolution of the European Union Methods of ...