A Monetary Hope for Europe. This book studies the euro in a global perspective and opens a new series edited by the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence of the University of Florence, Verso l'unificazione europea. Most of the chapters have been written by economists who met and discussed their diverse views at a multi-disciplinary conference organized by the Centre in May 2013 under the title The euro and the struggle for the creation of a new global currency: Problems and perspectives in the building of the political, financial and economic foundations of the European federal government. The list of contributors also includes historians as well as European and international law academics. Their essays have been revised on the basis and against the backdrop of an ongoing crisis of both the euro and the whole European project in the last years and months. The volume aims to provide useful data and interpretations to improve knowledge on the euro and the European Union in their economic, historical, juridical and political perspectives.

The quasi-federal European Union stands out as the major exception in the thinly institutionalized world of international politics. Something has led Europeans—and only Europeans—beyond the nation-state to a fundamentally new political architecture. Craig Parsons argues in A Certain Idea of Europe that this "something" was a particular set of ideas generated in Western Europe after the Second World War. In Parsons's view, today's European Union reflects the ideological (and perhaps visionary) project of an elite minority. His book traces the progressive victory of this project in France, where the battle over European institutions erupted most divisively. Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with French policymakers, the author carefully traces a fifty-year conflict between radically different European plans. Only through aggressive leadership did the advocates of a supranational "community" Europe succeed at building the EU and binding their opponents within it. Parsons puts the causal impact of ideas, and their binding effects through institutions, at the center of his book. In so doing he presents a strong logic of "social construction"—a sharp departure from other accounts of EU history that downplay the role of ideas and ideology.

Whereas currently, German-Polish relations are marked by irritations, the previous phase of politics and discourse from 1990 leading up to the EU-accession of Poland was marked by an increasing stress on Europe in both countries. This was connected with changing practices of cross-border cooperation as well as a change in academic border studies. Transgression as a Rule argues that resulting from this, cross-border cooperation has become a rule. The actors negotiate new, contradictory spaces for their actions: supported by the state but partly uncomfortable with it, drawing on the powerful discourse of cooperation and trying to escape from it. Their practices can also inform the practices of border studies.

This Handbook covers all major aspects of EU Cohesion policy, one of the most significant areas of intervention of the European Union. Over five parts, It discusses this policy’s history and governing principles; the theoretical approaches from which it can be assessed; the inter-institutional and multi-level dynamics that it tends to elicit; its practical implementation and impact on EU member states; its interactions with other EU policies and strategies; and the cognitive maps and narratives with which it can be associated. An absolute must for all students of the EU.

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - General and Theories of International Politics, , language: English, abstract: This essay presents arguments for and against Europe's handling of the refugee crisis. Both morality and historical experience require nothing less of us than rendering refugees our full and unrelenting assistance in the most trying stage of their lives. Just as important, however, failure to help them while we still can might also entail dire long-term consequences for our own long-term safety and security, notably by presenting Islamic extremists with the very means, mindsets and social environments necessary for waging war against us on a trans-national scale. Accordingly, this is the time for all of us—citizens and politicians alike—to rise up in a common effort to the arguably most daunting and formidable challenge facing Europe in this day and age. This is the time for giving back to other fellow human beings in need of our support just a little bit of that relative comfort, security and ease which we ourselves have been enjoying for so long now and which we all too often take for granted as being but our own god-given birthright or prerogative. This is the time to realize that most of the people now seeking shelter and refuge with us from the anguish and unimaginable horrors in their native countries have no intention whatsoever to forcibly wrest away our economic privileges, nor to undercut our established values and modes of living. That instead they merely wish to share in the same basic human rights we all hold so dear—peace, stability and, above all, freedom from fear, want and persecution. And, finally, this is also the time to link the current refugee crisis more closely to distinct geopolitical issues and concerns, notably by more systematically considering the wider strategic setbacks likely to be incurred in the event that national leaders prove unable to devise applicable solutions to the real human suffering endemic to this harrowing tragedy.

Can the European Economic and Monetary Union survive as an institution providing the highest degree of monetary integration? Can it withstand crises in international markets and contribute to the stability of the global financial system? This book addresses these questions, emphasising the need for new forms of economic policy coordination.

This agenda-setting book shows how freedom of movement has made the integration of Europe’s labour markets a contentious issue, for example in the aftermath of the eurocrisis, where workers had to make great sacrifices to enable the currency area to function. It argues that the process of market integration in Europe has undermined the power and influence of European workers and generated significant human costs. In starting from the position of labour, this book offers an alternative approach which balances the needs of justice and efficiency. With appeal across a wide range of readers interested in economic integration, it provides lessons for policymakers in how to integrate Europe’s member states to better protect workers and citizens.