Introduction
1. The European Union: Success or Failure?
Why Europe Works; John McCormick
The Rise and Fall of the EU; Jan Zielonka
2. More Powers for Brussels or Renationalization?
A Stronger, More Supranational Union; Derek Beach
The New Intergovernmentalism and European Integration; Uwe Puetter
3. How Democratic is the EU?
The Inevitability of a Democratic Deficit; Richard Bellamy
A Democratic Achievement, Not Just a Democratic Deficit; Christopher Lord
4. Too Much Power for the Judges?
Understanding the European Court's Political Power; Karen Alter and Daniel Kelemen
A Strange Institution; Jeremy Rabkin
5. Can There Be A Common European Identity?
European Identity Formation in (the) Crisis; Ulrike Liebert
A Common European Identity is an Illusion; Jonathan White
6. Lobbying in the EU: How Much Power for Big Business?
Still Influential After All These Years
Corporate Interests in the EU; Laura Horn and Angela Wigger
The Diminishing Power of Big Business; David Marshall
7. The Uncertain Future of the Euro
Why the Euro is a Functional Necessity in the Process of European Integration; Henrik Enderlein
For a Plurality of Economic and Social Models! Against the Uniform Euro State!; Andreas Nölke
8. Can the EU Tame Big Finance?
The Merits of Adaptive Governance: The Regulation of Financial Services in the EU; Jörn Carsten Gottwald
The Pitfalls of EU Governance in Financial Markets; Daniel Mügge
9. The Big Waste? The Common Agricultural Policy
The CAP: Dilemmas and Facts; Anastassios Haniotis
The Common Agricultural Policy: an Environmental, Social and Sanitary Failure; Eve Fouilleux
10. Does the EU Act as a Normative Power?
The EU as Normative Power; Daniela Sicurelli
Living in a Material World: A Critique of 'Normative Power Europe'; Mark Pollack
11. Has EU Enlargement Gone Too Far?
The Case for European Union Enlargement; Rachel Epstein
EU Enlargement: A Critique; Christopher J. Bickerton
12. Towards A Common European Army?
The European Union’s CSDP: the Great Illusion; Luca Ratti
Defence Integration in the EU: From Vision to Business-as-Usual; Hanna Ojanen
13. Britain’s Decision to Leave the EU: Good or Bad?
In Defence of Brexit; Christopher J. Bickerton
Brexit-a Political and Economic Disaster for Britain; Martin Rhodes
14. New German Hegemony: Does It Exist, And Is It Dangerous?
A Benign Hegemon: Germany’s European Vocation; Miguel Otero-Iglesias and Hubert Zimmermann
The Failure of German Leadership; Matthias Matthijs
15. What Future for the Transatlantic Partnership?
Dis-Atlanticism: The West in an Era of Global Fragmentation; Rawi Abdelal and Ulrich Krotz
A Transatlantic Strategy for the Liberal Order; Bart Szewzyk
Conclusion.
Hubert Zimmermann is Professor of International Relations at Philipp University of Marburg. He also taught at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, and Ruhr-University, Bochum. He received his PhD from the European University Institute, Florence. He has published on EU foreign economic and security policies, transatlantic relations, and international monetary and financial issues.
Andreas Dür is Professor of International Politics at the University of Salzburg. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence. Prior to taking up his current position, he was a research fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research and a lecturer at University College Dublin. Dür has published nearly 50 peer-reviewed articles on trade policy, interest group politics, and European integration. His most recent books are Insiders versus Outsiders: Interest Group Politics in Multilevel Europe (Oxford University Press, 2016) and The Political Influence of Business in the European Union (University of Michigan Press, 2019).
Since its inception, the European Union has been a fiercely contested and politically divisive project. In recent years, controversial issues such as EU enlargement, the fallout from the Eurozone crisis, migration policies, Brexit and the Corona pandemic have tested the EU to its limits and divided public opinion in the process.
This innovative volume brings together leading scholars from around the world to debate the nature, current state and future of European integration. The contributors represent the whole spectrum of thinking about the European Union, ranging from pro-European to openly Eurosceptic perspectives. Within the book, chapters present two opposing perspectives on a wide range of controversies. Among the issues discussed are: how efficient is the European Union? Has the European project been a success? Will the Eurozone survive in its present state? Was Brexit good or bad? Guaranteed to illuminate as well as spark debate, this text provides an engaging and incisive overview of the most important issues in contemporary EU politics.