Architects Of The Euro

Who were key figures in the making of European monetary union? Which ideas did they contribute to ensuring that monetary union would be sustainable? How prescient were they in identifying the necessary and sufficient foundations of a sustainable monetary union? This book provides the first systematic historical examination of key architects of European monetary union in the period before its launch in 1999. Using original archival and interview research, it investigates the intellectual and career backgrounds of these architects, their networking skills, and their own doubts and reservations about the way in which monetary union was being constructed. In the light of the later Euro Area, Architects of the Euro deals critically with not just their contribution to the making of European monetary union but also their legacy. The book brings together a distinguished group of scholars working on the history of Economic and Monetary Union.

The collapse of the bipolar world sustained by the United States and the former Soviet Union led to a power vacuum in the 1990s that the European Union has only reluctantly begun to fill. It is under pressure to take over important international tasks and roles in order to develop a new equilibrium in the system of international relations. After 2000, reforms were undertaken so that the European Union could deal more efficiently with the tasks the new political system had acquired since the early 1990s. With respect to its international role, reorganization of the EU's external relations department was high on the list. The New World Architecture explores the contribution that the European Union is making to the emerging global governance system. It discusses the theoretical and historical aspects of European integration within the framework of the emerging regional EU and global governance systems. It explores three regimes of governance that are contributing to holding together the new emerging EU multilevel governance system. None of these is complete; all are partial. They include the political regime of governance; the socioeconomic regime of governance; and the territorial regime of governance. The author assesses the impact of the European Union on global politics. The Mediterranean and Latin America represent regions in which the European Union is investing considerable effort in order to create new forms of cooperation. Magone argues that within the next twenty-five years global governance may and should emerge as the new and reconfigured stable system of international relations. In this system, the European Union is and will remain the most advanced regional system. This volume will be of interest to specialists, scholars, and students of European Politics and the European Union.

Philippe Samyn, architect and engineer, created with this building for the European Council an architectural masterpiece. Clever in its entirety and in every detail, in its iconic functions, and in its decorum, it perfectly reflects the aura of power that the 28 members of the European Union share together. In addition to Jean Attali and Philippe Samyn's view on the building phases, this book also includes the overall picture of the project. All the phases of the building process as well as the facilities are dealt with. Text in English, Dutch and French.

'On Site' presents projects and strategies in landscape architecture from Berlin to Bordeaux. The projects are supplemented by essays on European cartography, the cultural landscape, the history of ideas in landscape architecture, the role of ideal landscapes, urban policies, and the pioneers from Portugal.

In the past few years the image of tender procedures in which Dutch public clients selected an architect has been dominated by distressing newspaper headlines. Architects fear that the current tender culture will harm the quality of our built environment due to a potential lack of diversity, creativity and innovation in architectural design. Due to potential risks clients often allow legal requirements to overrule their actual wishes. This PhD research addresses the origin of the problems as currently experienced by public commissioning clients in architect selection and proposes pragmatic implications for future practice. It is therefore of interest for commissioning clients, management consultants, policy makers and legal advisors but also for designers and researchers in the field of architecture and decision making.

Annotation. The European Constitutional Convention offers a historical opportunity to rethink and to improve the governance and organization of the European Union. At stake is Europe's political architecture: the form that government takes and the allocation of responsibilities between the member states and supranational bodies. Many reform proposals have already been offered to the Convention. This Report provides a method for evaluating those options, developing an analytical framework derived from recent developments in the theory of positive political economy. On this basis the authors conclude that a presidential system of governance is likely to be best adapted to Europe -- and specifically to the need to expand the competency of the EU in the areas of internal and external security (Europe's Second and Third Pillars). In a full-blown presidential system, the Commission would have well-defined executive powers, specified by the Council, and a president elected by the citizens of Europe. The European executive would be subject to checks and balances by both the Council and the European Parliament. But political realism excludes adopting such a solution in the short run. The authors therefore propose an evolutionary strategy: the election of the Commission president by a college of country representatives appointed in the short run by national parliaments, leaving the option open to individual countries to allocate their votes for the presidency via universal suffrage. This solution would preserve the option of moving to a fully-fledged presidential model sometime in the future, while providing enhanced democratic legitimacy from the start. In general, the Constitution should be long on principles and general rules and short on details so as to allow Europe's governance to evolve within an unchanged Constitution. Book jacket.

What makes up a capital city? In this first comprehensive look at the architectural and urban visions for a European capital, Hein examines how these visions compare to the reality of the three headquarter cities for the European Union: Strasbourg, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Tracing the history of the EU and its creation of the new political entity of the polycentric capital, Hein explores the impact that European unification has on visionary projects and the transformation of EU member cities. Widely researched, the book also brings in architectural projects that have remained largely unknown until now. Using architectural and urban history as a lens, Hein examines the past five decades of European unification. Also analyzed for the first time are the debates, plans, projects, and constructions—both realized and failed—that accompanied this process. Looking to the future, Hein asserts that the task of these three capital cities is to balance the needs of a collective Europe with national, local, and—increasingly—regional demands.