This book analyses the institutional and administrative achievements of the Lisbon agenda, most ambitious plan of the European Union over the last ten years. It was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

How successful was the EU's Lisbon Strategy? This volume provides the first comprehensive assessment of the Strategy and reflects on its key developments during its 10-year cycle. The volume contains both theoretical and empirical contributions by some of the leading scholars of EU studies across the social sciences.

In the year 2000, in Lisbon, the European Union launched an agenda for growth, jobs, sustainability and competiveness with a ten-year target. In 2010, the agenda was re-launched with different specific objectives but with the same final goals. Why do the European Union leaders engage with these ten-year plans? What exactly do they commit to when they do so? Do they learn from the results, or is this a rhetorical exercise that complex organizations need to raise attention to certain issues? This volume is the first-ever systematic study of the Lisbon agenda of the European Union, now called Europe 2020. It explains the rise of the Lisbon agenda as governance architectures and examines its components across time and sectors. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

The book assesses the EU performance in the broader UN setting after the Lisbon Treaty. Distinguished scholars with expertise in EU-UN relations use a comprehensive analytical framework of performance to examine various aspects of the complex EU engagement in UN politics. Performance goes beyond the achievement of agreed-upon objectives and engulfs the underlying, intra-organizational, agreement-reaching processes. The contributors examine the output of the intra-EU policy-making process and its impact within the UN setting. They cover thematic areas of special importance for the EU such as environment, human rights, disarmament and peacekeeping operations as well as special UN bodies and forums where the EU is particularly active, such as the UN General Assembly and its main Committees, the International Labour Organisation, UNESCO and the Non-Proliferation Review Conferences.

This book seeks to analyse the development of the European Union (EU), which was founded upon the principle of the free movement of capital, goods, services and people in 1957. Its central thesis is that, from a practical and theoretical point of view, such a basis is fundamentally at odds with the creation of an interventionist regime that the construction of a social Europe would require. The authors argue convincingly that - economically: the EU does not currently possess the budget or the economic tools to pursue such a strategy; politically: close to none of the institutions of the EU have backed such a policy; practically: conservative and neo-liberal forces (among member states and the institutions of the EU) have repeatedly thwarted any moves in this direction. In reality, the Single Internal Market, Economic and Monetary Union, enlargement, the Lisbon Agenda and European Constitution projects all prioritise supply-side measures and expanding the scope of the market rather than the boosting of demand and other economic intervention. Consequently, constructing a social Europe in the face of this would appear problematic. Hence, in both theory and practice, the idea that there can be a social Europe vis-à-vis neoliberalisation is a contradiction in terms. This controversial book will be an educating and refreshing read for advanced students and academics involved with European politics, the European Union, European Economics and Economic instititutions.

As the European Union faces the ongoing challenges of legitimacy, identity, and social cohesion, an understanding of the social purpose and direction of EU citizenship becomes increasingly vital. This book is the first of its kind to map the development of EU citizenship and its relation to various localities of EU governance. From a critical political economy perspective, the authors argue for an integrated analysis of EU citizenship, one that considers the interrelated processes of migration, economic transformation, and social change and the challenges they present.

An introduction to the European Union from a comparative politics perspective, systematically analysing its functioning through comparison with national political systems.