Exploring the development of the European Union, this book examines the ways in which it has been studied over fifty years from the vantage point of four disciplines, each side of the Atlantic, and both academic and practitioner perspectives. Drawing on contributions by some of the world's leading scholars in the field, it maps the past and present of both the EU and EU studies before setting out a provocative agenda for future work in the area.

The Treaty on European Union, popularly known as the Maastricht Treaty, has had a profound impact on the process of European integration. This book commemorates the entry into force of the Treaty 20 years ago by evaluating the legal impact it has had on the EU's institutional framework and its policies. The book includes contributions on a wide variety of topics, including Economic and Monetary Union, Union citizenship, fundamental rights, foreign affairs and defense policy, educational policy and environmental policy. The contributions revisit the reasons for the changes the Maastricht Treaty has brought about and examine their development over the years, identifying unexpected success stories, unfulfilled expectations, missed opportunities, and future challenges. The book's contributors are (or have been) associated with the Maastricht Center for European Law or the Faculty of Law of the Maastricht University, giving this book a unique 'Maastricht' flavor. It will be of interest to legal scholars and practitioners with a keen interest in EU law and European integration. (Series: Ius Commune Europaeum - Vol. 123)

“This book is an enrichment for the standing debate about Europe and should be published and widely read and discussed.” - Boudewijn R.A. Bouckaert Reflections on Democracy in the European Union, with a foreword by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is a unique volume that offers an interdisciplinary approach on EU democracy, law and politics from economic, juridical and philosophical perspectives. It is divided in three parts and deals with EU's contemporary challenges, its historical development, democracy and rule of law. The volume connects the EU's present to the past in order to reflect on possible future scenario's - which is especially important in these turbulent times after Brexit. The volume is highly recommended for academics, economists, politicians, jurists and policy makers. Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie.

Across Europe, radical right-wing parties are winning increasing electoral support. The Dark Side of European Integration argues that this rising nationalism and the mobilization of the radical right are the consequences of European economic integration. The European economic project has produced a cultural backlash in the form of nationalist radical right ideologies. This assessment relies on a detailed analysis of the electoral rise of radical right parties in Western and Eastern Europe. Contrary to popular belief, economic performance and immigration rates are not the only factors that determine the far right's success. There are other political and social factors that explain why in post-socialist Eastern European countries such parties had historically been weaker than their potential, which they have now started to fulfill increasingly. Using in-depth interviews with radical right activists in Ukraine, Alina Polyakova also explores how radical right mobilization works on the ground through social networks, allowing new insights into how social movements and political parties interact.

This book aims to provide an analysis of the EU’s crisis decade—from the euro crisis to the populist right parties’ resurgence and Brexit. The EU has encountered a series of crises since 2008 when the Greek sovereign debt crisis first broke out and brought forth the euro crisis. This was soon followed by the rise of anti-EU populist right parties, culminating in their unprecedented victory in the 2014 European Parliament Elections. The most unexpected shock, however, was the Brexit result of the UK's EU referendum in 2016. Providing a valuable external perspective on these events grounded in the realities of the Asian boom, this book will be of value to scholars, policymakers, and economists.

This book approaches the notion of good governance from three different angles. First it establishes whether it is a meaningful notion at all by taking a closer look at the parameters of good governance. Secondly, the authors look at the institutional translation of the criteria of good governance. In a third dimension, the concept may be analysed in relation to a number of substantive issues.

The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).