Introduction: Explaining the EU Political System PART I: GOVERNMENT Executive Politics Legislative Politics Judicial Politics PART II: POLITICS Public Opinion Democracy, Parties and Elections Interest Representation PART III: POLICY-MAKING Regulation of the Single Market Expenditure Policies Economic and Monetary Union Citizen Freedom and Security Policies Foreign Policies Conclusions: Rethinking the European Union Appendix: Decision-making Procedures of the European Union Bibliography

The political system of European Union

discipline. 3 I begin my search for an explanation with (liberal) intergovernmentalism, the most prominent and promising rationalist account of the major turning points in the history of European integration. This perspective accounts plausibly for most of the enlargement preferences of the member states and explains why the association of Central and Eastern European countries to the European Community (EC) was the initial outcome of the bargaining process among them. It fails, however, to account for the Community’s decision to go beyond association and offer these countries full membership. This puzzle is solved through a sociological perspective in which enlargement is understood as the expansion of international community. If the EU is conceived of

/pdf/the-community-trap-liberal-norms-rhetorical-action-and-the-cpu7xlnnmz.pdf

The Community Trap: Liberal Norms, Rhetorical Action, and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union

Is 'Europeanization' as disappointing a term as it is fashionable? Should it be abandoned, or is it useful for understanding European transformations? Five uses are discussed and it is argued that research need not be hampered by competing definitions as long as their meaning, the phenomena in focus, the simplifying assumption used, the models of change and the theoretical challenges involved, are clarified and kept separate. The research challenge is one of model building, not one of inventing definitions. While it is premature to abandon the term, its usefulness may be more limited than its widespread use could indicate. Europeanization may be less useful as an explanatory concept than as an attention-directing device and a starting point for further exploration.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/JCMS403.pdf?abstractid=369690&mirid=5

The Many Faces of Europeanization

The paper examines the debates regarding place-neutral versus place-based policies for economic development. The analysis is set in the context of how development policy thinking on the part of both scholars and international organizations has evolved over several decades. Many of the previously accepted arguments have been called into question by the impacts of globalization and a new response to these issues has emerged, a response both to these global changes and also to nonspatial development approaches. The debates are highlighted in the context of a series of major reports recently published on the topic. The cases of the developing world and the European Union are used as examples of how in this changing context development intervention should increasingly focus on efficiency and social inclusion at the expense of an emphasis on territorial convergence and how strategies should consider economic, social, political, and institutional diversity in order to maximize both the local and the aggregate potential for economic development.

/pdf/the-case-for-regional-development-intervention-place-based-2f1a1b6mia.pdf

The case for regional development intervention: place-based versus place-neutral approaches*

Sandholtz and Zysman (Chapter 18) argued that supranational actors played a major role in relaunching Europe. Neofunctionalism was suddenly back in style among many students of the European Community, who now saw spillover everywhere. Realists, who assume that nation states operating in an anarchic (or near-anarchic) world are still the most important international actors, eventually reacted to the emphasis on supranational institutions and processes with their own explanation of recent events in Europe.

/pdf/negotiating-the-single-european-act-national-interests-and-14b1hweyt0.pdf

Negotiating the Single European Act: National Interests and Conventional Statecraft in the European Community

Introduction PART 1: WHO DOES WHAT? National Representatives Decide: The Ministers in Council Officials Prepare the Ground: The Preparatory Bodies Bureaucrats Organise and Advise: The Council Secretariat Taking Turns at the Wheel: The Presidency PART II: WITH WHOM? Overlapping Competences: The Council and the European Council Competition and Cooperation: The Council and the Commission An Evolving Partnership: The Council and the European Parliament Not Just Governments: The Council and the Member States PART III: HOW? Less Often than Expected: Voting in the Council Compromise and Consensus: Negotiation and Bargaining in the Council Conclusions

/pdf/the-council-of-ministers-4cvlqilynm.pdf

The Council of Ministers

Policy-making in the European Union

1. Overview 2. Conceptual framework PART I - ASSESSMENT 3. Policy implementation 4. Economic performance: growth, stability and cohesion 5. Economic trade-offs 6. Economic governance in the EU PART II - CHALLENGES 7. Is the European model sustainable? 8. Making a bigger Europe work 9. Europe and the world PART III - RECOMMENDATIONS 10. Principles 11. Policies for promoting growth 12. Modes of delivery: governance methods and the budget

/pdf/an-agenda-for-a-growing-europe-the-sapir-report-10uc0n5rm8.pdf

An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report

The policies of the European Union profoundly affect the lives of people in Europe and around the world. The new edition of this highly successful textbook outlines how and why such decisions are made, as well as the key challenges faced by policy-makers in the current political and economic climate. Policy-Making in the European Union begins by clarifying the institutional framework of the EU and the analytical approaches used to understand it. A wide range of crucial and illustrative policies are then explored in detail by subject experts. This volume includes new chapters on ways of analyzing the EU's policy process and on energy policy. A central theme to the volume is how the recent expansion to twenty-seven member states has affected policy-making across the different policy sectors. The conclusion reflects on how this challenge and the protracted constitutional stalemate have affected policy-making in the EU. It also explores the impact of the financial and economic crises that have struck Europe over the past several years. The sixth edition is fully up-to-date, and is the ideal text for all those with an interest in the policy-making of the European Union.

Helen Wallace

Papers

The Council of Ministers

Policy-making in the European Union

An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report

Policy-making in the European Union

Integration through law: Europe and the American federal experience