Europe is a continent whose history has, in one form or another, long been dominated by integration. And yet the European integration process is often treated as synonymous with the evolution of just one particular, and until recently geographically quite limited, Western-centred organisation: the European Union (EU). This trend obscures the multitude of ways European states have acted collectively on both sides of the Iron Curtain – and continue to do so throughout the continent today. With contributors drawn from history and political science, this book explores some of these diverse integration efforts ‘beyond Brussels’. We shine a light on international organisations, trade frameworks, and various political, social, scientific and cultural forms of unity in both Eastern and Western Europe. In so doing, the book seeks to redefine the history of the European integration process not only as a less purely EU-centric phenomenon but as a less strictly Western European one too.

Introduced with a preface by Jacques Delors, this volume offers new insights and develops generalised theories about the nature of European integration. The contributors step back from the detail of the latest intergovernmental conference and budgetary negotiations to generate conclusions of enduring value. The issues dealt with include the following: * Britain and integration * intergovernmental conferences * the rule of law * making foreign policy work * the democratic deficit.

This volume explores the involvement of the European Union in the exercise of core state powers such as foreign and defense policy, public finance, public administration, and the maintenance of law and order.

Introduced with a preface by Jacques Delors, this volume offers new insights and develops generalised theories about the nature of European integration. The contributors step back from the detail of the latest intergovernmental conference and budgetary negotiations to generate conclusions of enduring value. The issues dealt with include the following: * Britain and integration * intergovernmental conferences * the rule of law * making foreign policy work * the democratic deficit.

European integration continues to deepen despite major crises and attempts to take back sovereignty. A growing number of member states are reacting to a more constraining EU by negotiating opt-outs. This book provides the first in-depth account of how opt-outs work in practice. It examines the most controversial cases of differentiated integration: the British and Danish opt-outs from Economic and Monetary Union and European policies on borders, asylum, migration, internal security and justice. Drawing on over one hundred interviews with national representatives and EU officials, the author demonstrates how representatives manage the stigma of opting out, allowing them to influence even politically sensitive areas covered by their opt-outs. Developing a practice approach to European integration, the book shows how everyday negotiations transform national interests into European ideals. It is usually assumed that states opt out to preserve sovereignty, but Adler-Nissen argues that national opt-outs may actually reinforce the integration process.

Though crises arise organically in all political systems, this volume treats the current challenges facing the EU as a unique situation. It takes stock of its losses, gains, and opportunities and what constitutes a viable solution to the EU’s current predicament. By envisioning the EU as an evolving rather than static body, this collection zeroes in on the conceptual weaknesses that destabilized the EU and the factors that will help the organization rethink its place and purpose. This book clarifies aspects of EU parliamentarism within the context of the unfolding crisis and addresses political cohesion and institutional integration. It ultimately stresses the role of perception and image on the future of the EU’s social and political integration.

The European Union beyond the Polycrisis? explores the political dynamics of multiple crises faced by the EU, both at European level and within the member states. In so doing, it provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research on the relationship between politicization and European integration. The book proposes that the EU’s multi-dimensional crisis can be seen as a multi-level ‘politics trap’, from which the Union is struggling to escape. The individual contributions analyze the mechanisms of this trap, its relationship to the multiple crises currently faced by the EU, and the strategies pursued by a plurality of actors (the Commission, the European Parliament, national governments) to cope with its constraints. Overall, the book suggests that comprehensive, ‘grand’ bargains are for the moment out of reach, although national and supranational actors can find ways of ‘relaxing’ the politics trap and in so doing perhaps lay the foundations for more ambitious future solutions. This book, dedicated to the exploration of the political dynamics of multiple, simultaneous crises, offers an empirical and theoretical assessment of the existing political constraints on European integration. Analysing domestic and European political reactions to the EU’s polycrisis and assessing how EU institutions, national governments and broader publics have responded to a new era of politicization, The European Union beyond the Polycrisis? will be of great interest to scholars of European politics and the EU, as well as professionals working in EU institutions, national administrations and European advocacy groups. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.