First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Before the latest EU enlargement substantial changes in the integration process were predicted as a result of the accession of 10 new member states, with some forecasting cataclysmic consequences. This book, the first ex post assessment of EU enlargement, provides evidence to the contrary, while also providing examples in which the new members have been able to influence the EU policy output with their liberal attitudes on economic and social policy.

The European Union is paradoxical: it is not a state, yet it performs many traditional functions of the state. Its regulatory powers are immense but its redistributive functions are negligible; its decisions penetrate all aspects of economic and social life, yet Brussels has no local administration or tribunals, no controllers capable of guaranteeing the correct and faithful implementation of the regulations or objectives which frame European policies. Adjusting to Europe explores the means through which this paradox is confronted. It examines the nature and modalities of policy-making at Community level and discusses the implications of the specific nature of European institiutions for bargaining group mobilization and policy style. It then studies how the three major nation states have adjusted their policy processes and institutions to the European challenges. Finally, it considers the impact of community decisions in three areas: industrial, competition and social policy.

This volume argues that the crisis of the European Union is not merely a fiscal crisis but reveals and amplifies deeper flaws in the structure of the EU itself. It is a multidimensional crisis of the economic, legal and political cornerstones of European integration and marks the end of the technocratic mode of integration which has been dominant since the 1950s. The EU has a weak political and administrative centre, relies excessively on governance by law, is challenged by increasing heterogeneity and displays increasingly interlocked levels of government. During the crisis, it has become more and more asymmetrical and has intervened massively in domestic economic and legal systems. A team of economists, lawyers, philosophers and political scientists analyse these deeper dimensions of the European crisis from a broader theoretical perspective with a view towards contributing to a better understanding and shaping the trajectory of the EU.

This book examines the politics of Banking Union and EMU reform in the EU, and draws lessons for what it means for international politics, both in Europe, and for international relations more broadly. It demonstrates that most of the reforms in Europe to break free of the Eurozone and banking crises in which Europe continues to find itself focus on building up the capacities of national authorities rather than European ones. The result is that national authorities remain largely in control of the decisions and funds that are to be deployed to prevent economic disaster if a single EU bank fails. The likely outcome is an accelerated balkanization of the European market for the foreseeable future. The book also contends that power politics, and realism in particular, is a defining feature of European politics with coercion and enforced national responsibility at the demand of Germany; the dominant form of institution-building that established the responsible sovereignty model, and shut down the possibility of alternatives. In making this case, the book demonstrates that the dominant view in international relations, that power politics best explains the behaviour of states, also apply to the EU. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of the Eurozone crisis, EU politics, economic policy, and more broadly to political economy, public policy and international relations.

The Maastricht Treaty, signed in December 1991, set a timetable for the European Community's economic and monetary union (EMU) and clearly defined the institutional policy changes necessary for its achievement. Subsequent developments have demonstrated, however, the importance of many key issues in the transition to EMU that were largely neglected at the time. This volume reports the proceedings of a joint CEPR conference with the Banco de Portugal, held in January 1992. In these papers, leading international experts address the instability of the transition to EMU, the long-run implications of monetary union and the single market for growth and convergence in Europe. They also consider the prospects for inflation and fiscal convergence, regional policy and the integration of financial markets and fiscal systems. Attention focuses on adjustment mechanisms with differentiated shocks, region-specific business cycles and excessive industrial concentration and the cases for a two-speed EMU and fiscal federalism.