This book gathers leading international scholars to examine the institutional choices and innovations of the Lisbon Treaty and discuss the likely effects of the changes that it set out to accomplish. Will the changes meet the declared goals of a more efficient and democratic Union which will allow the EU to act internationally with greater coherence and efficiency? If institutions matter, how much do they matter? How significant is the Lisbon Treaty? What kind of leadership will be available in the post-Lisbon EU?
Featuring over 400 cross-referenced entries, this comprehensive resource covers key figures, member states, policies, and treaties related to the European Union. It includes a chronology, an introductory essay, and extensive appendices, making it a valuable tool for students and researchers. The detailed bibliography further enhances its utility for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of the EU's complexities and historical context.
The global financial crisis revealed significant flaws in the Economic and Monetary Union, highlighting a lack of monetary policy autonomy and competitiveness. In response, there have been gradual shifts towards fiscal and banking union, indicating a new phase of European integration contrary to previous beliefs of stability post-Lisbon Treaty. This book examines these developments alongside various economic policies impacting the EU's overall welfare, including agriculture, trade, and immigration, while situating the Eurozone crisis within the broader context of European deepening and widening.
Exploring the complexities of religious freedom within educational settings, this book delves into legal frameworks, historical context, and contemporary debates surrounding the topic. It addresses misconceptions and provides insights into how schools can navigate the balance between upholding students' rights to religious expression and maintaining a secular educational environment. Through case studies and expert analysis, readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and implications of religious freedom in schools.
This book gives an up-to-date analysis of the EU's current enlargement policy with focus on current and potential candidates in the Western Balkans as well as the controversial case of Turkey. The issues are put into the context of the widening versus deepening debate. Despite enlargement fatigue the porocess of widening is expected to continue.
This book is focused on the global political economy, on the transatlantic economic relations and on the issue of competition. There are more bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) being concluded and, given the complex interdependence of transatlantic countries, they need to work together to solve the issues that divide them.
This book examines transatlantic security relations in recent years. The end of the Cold War in the late 1980s brought a change in these relations, but they remain important for Europe’s security. Despite efforts to develop a European security policy within the European Union, the continent still largely depends on the United States for its security, as demonstrated by the NATO involvement to deal with the civil wars in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.The lessons from those conflicts had the EU move towards an autonomous defence policy from 1999 and the Lisbon Treaty has recently strengthened what is now called the Common European Defence Policy (CEDP). But this policy is still geared towards ‘soft security’ missions of conflict resolution, peace-making and peace creation.When it comes to more traditional security operations requiring heavy military involvement, European countries depend on US hardware and software, as we saw in Libya during the Arab Spring. Equally, in the fight against terrorism, transatlantic cooperation is also very important.This book considers all these issues and presents a strong analysis of the future of transatlantic security relations from the perspective of the EU.
The European Union (EU) has gone through a number of treaty reforms since the establishment of the European Communities in the 1950s and the creation of the European Union by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The latest such reform is the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force in 2009. In this book, a number of scholars explore the process of producing the Lisbon Treaty. The focus is on the role of member states, arguably the masters of the treaty. Intergovernmental conferences have become the main setting for treaty reforms since the Single European Act (SEA) in the mid-1980s. This makes national preferences and inter-state bargaining important when new treaties are negotiated. The Lisbon Treaty delineates a number of institutional changes. In the end the product has to be evaluated against the standards established at the outset. Will the treaty improve the efficiency, democratic legitimacy as well as the coherence of the Union s external action, as the member states claimed it would? While the final text of the treaty leaves the EU with some new institutional possibilities, it also has its limitations, especially in the area of foreign and security policy.
The EU has become an important international actor. Its internal policies often have repercussions far beyond its borders. It is also increasingly becoming a proactive global actor, defending its interests and projecting its norms and values in both bilateral and multilateral external relations.This volume has a special focus on external economic relations and includes chapters on the Euro, trade policy, and competition policy as well as on specific bilateral relationships. The section on relations with industrialized countries deals with the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan and China, while the section on relations with developing countries has chapters on administrative reform, environmental cooperation, Cuba, Central America and Iran.The book thus gives an up-to-date overview of important aspects of the EU’s external relations. With a focus on political economy, it traces the continuous interplay of economics and politics that has characterized the EU’s development of a fully-fledged foreign policy. What emerges is a picture of a European Union that is better equipped institutionally to deal with economic, rather than political issues.
