European Integration And The Problem Of The State

The State of European Integration provides scholars, practitioners, experts and students with a comprehensive account of the state of the European Union today. With contributions from leading scholars including Richard G. Whitman, Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Gülnur Aybet, Leila Simona Talani and Gareth Dale, the book examines the EU in a theoretically informed and empirically grounded manner. Opening with an exploration into the nature of the European Union as an international actor, it then assesses the impact of enlargement on institutions, policies and identity. The contributors investigate issues related to the degree of convergence and cohesion among members, and analyze the economic and monetary state of integration. The volume comes at a timely interval when there is a need to understand the present and future of the European Union.

This book offers a broad view of the tension between state and market in the political evolution of the European Union. Contemporary developments and issues are set within the historical context of state formation. Paul Kapteyn argues that states are invariably formed by violent conquest, or by fusion in the face of an external threat; and that markets can emerge only only when the state has been established. He points out that while the histories of France, Britain, The Netherlands and Germany conform to these rules, the European Union does not; and he goes on to explore the reasons why this is not so, and its implications. The second section of the book is based on empirical research. Paul Kapteyn underpins his theoretical and historical argument with an analysis of official documents, newspaper articles and interviews with Eurocrats form the various member states. He concentrates especially on two case studies, of the Treaty of Schengen on judicial cooperation and harmonization, and of the problem of EU fraud. He also looks closely at eh consquences of the Maastricht Treaty. The Stateless Marlet is a thought-provoking text, ideally suited to students on European studies, politics, international relations and sociology courses. it will also be of great interest to those professionally concerned with European integration.

This study argues that the practices of European integration reproduce, rather than transcend, the practices of modern statecraft. Therefore, the project of European integration is plagued by similar ethico-political dilemmas as the modern state, and is ultimately animated by a similar desire to either expel or interiorize difference.

The effects of recent institutional change within the European Union on small states have often been overlooked. This book offers an accessible, coherent and informative analysis of contemporary and future foreign policy challenges facing small states in Europe. Leading experts analyze the experiences of a number of small states including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland. Each account, written to a common template, explores the challenges and opportunities faced by each state as a consequence of EU integration, and how their behaviour regarding EU integration has been characterized. In particular, the contributors emphasize the importance of power politics, institutional dynamics and lessons of the past. Innovative and sophisticated, the study draws on the relational understanding of small states to emphasize the implications of institutional change at the European level for the smaller states and to explain how the foreign and European policies of small states in the region are affected by the European Union.

Against the backdrop of combating the financial and economic crisis in the European Union for the past decade, this volume strives to explore the manifold impacts the prevailing crisis management has on the further alignment of European Integration. The efforts targeted at overcoming the financial and economic crisis evoked far-reaching consequences on the societal, economic, and political level within European member states, which in turn challenge the institutional alignment, democratic legitimacy and economic coherence of the European Union. Taking into account current developments in the EU, the contributions presented in this volume focus on the ‘fault lines’ in the integration process, i.e. questions of policy coherence, democratic accountability, financialization, militarization, migration, gendered social and economic asymmetries as well as the rise of populist and extreme right-wing parties. The volume focuses on how these different developments come together by relating aspects of transdisciplinary research to uncover the fault lines in the European integration project in the subsequent chapters. ContentEconomic and Democratic Governance • Right Wing Populism and Right Extreme Parties • Financialization and Militarization • Social Exclusion, Welfare and Migration Policies EditorsProf. (FH) Dr. Stefanie Wöhl, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Prof. (FH) Dr. Elisabeth Springler, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Mag. Martin Pachel, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Dr. Bernhard Zeilinger, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna.

This book explores the complex and ever-changing relationship between the European Union and its member states. The recent surge in tension in this relationship has been prompted by the actions of some member state governments as they question fundamental EU values and principles and refuse to implement common decisions seemingly on the basis of narrowly defined national interests. Furthermore, Brexit forces the EU for the first time to face the prospect of a major member state preparing to leave the Union. Are these developments heralding the return of the nation-state, and if so, in what form? Is the national revival a lasting phenomenon that will affect the EU for a long time to come, or is it a transitory trend? This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to answer these questions. It brings together scholars from economics, law, and political science to provide insights into the multifaceted relations between the Union and its member states from different perspectives. All chapters are based on up-to-date research findings, succinct assessments of the current state of affairs and ongoing debates about the direction of European integration. The book concludes by offering policy recommendations at European and national levels.

This book offers a broad view of the tension between state and market in the political evolution of the European Union. Contemporary developments and issues are set within the historical context of state formation. Paul Kapteyn argues that states are invariably formed by violent conquest, or by fusion in the face of an external threat; and that markets can emerge only only when the state has been established. He points out that while the histories of France, Britain, The Netherlands and Germany conform to these rules, the European Union does not; and he goes on to explore the reasons why this is not so, and its implications. The second section of the book is based on empirical research. Paul Kapteyn underpins his theoretical and historical argument with an analysis of official documents, newspaper articles and interviews with Eurocrats form the various member states. He concentrates especially on two case studies, of the Treaty of Schengen on judicial cooperation and harmonization, and of the problem of EU fraud. He also looks closely at eh consquences of the Maastricht Treaty. The Stateless Marlet is a thought-provoking text, ideally suited to students on European studies, politics, international relations and sociology courses. it will also be of great interest to those professionally concerned with European integration.

First published in 1998, this book breaks a path through the vast field of integration research showing how and why views on the relationship between the state and integration have developed in time. It illustrates the development by dialogues between representatives of opposing views and renders their plurality understandable through spelling out choices made in research and identifying the crucial background factors which direct research: disciplinary divisions, scholars’ methodological preferences, views on science and theory, and their values. It further shows the decisive concrete influence of the views through displaying contradictory interpretations of two case studies; Finnish integration policy and Nordic cooperation. Concentrating on the immediate pre-enlargement period, these studies show how the question of the consequences of EU membership was tackled in practice. This unconventional disposition is challenging in that it requires the reader to pay attention to revealing details but rewards with new insights into the kaleidoscopic nature of research, construction of knowledge and the value of plurality.