This book examines selected pertinent topics on issues relating to current and future EU developments. In its initial sections, the book focuses on an array of wide ranging micro (agriculture, industry and competition) and macro (EMU, regional convergence and enlargement) issues. A final section is reserved for discussion on Britain's future relationship with the EU. In particular, the book posits possible alternative strategies (e.g. NAFTA membership and policy frameworks) and examines these from both a theoretical and empirical perspective.

Crises are not a new phenomenon in the context of European integration. Additional integration steps could often only be achieved under the pressure of crises. At present, however, the EU is characterised by multiple crises, so that the integration process as a whole is sometimes being questioned. In 2015, the crisis in the eurozone had escalated to such an extent that for the first time a member state was threatened to leave the eurozone. Furthermore, the massive influx of refugees into the EU has revealed the shortcomings of the Schengen area and the common asylum policy. Finally, with the majority vote of the British in the referendum of 23 June 2016 in favour of the Brexit, the withdrawal of a member state became a reality for the first time. Even in the words of the European Commission, the EU has reached a crossroads. Against this background, the twelfth Network Europe conference included talks on the numerous challenges and future integration scenarios in Europe.

The subjects dealt with in the papers include the relationship between the freedoms in the EC treaty and private international law, financial regulation and supervision of banks, the international insurance market and the Euro in the new member states.

This volume is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of intertwined issues surrounding the EU's democracy and legitimacy, written in the turbulent context of the financial crisis. The chapters are woven together under four interconnected thematic sections that examine: rapidly growing national euroscepticism; the Economic Monetary Union and its legitimacy; the future of EU integration; and democratic deficit(s) across its internal & external structure. The volume presents an authoritative collection of research results and surveys by experts in various disciplines related to the EU, and is addressed to researchers and students examining EU governance, representation and accountability, as well as practitioners across a multiplicity of fields.

Vexing issues concerning internal and external change challenge Europe as it tries hard to regroup, reform and refocus. This series is intended to present an ongoing forum to stimulate discussion of these issues. Table of Contents: Preface; Broadband Communications in the European Union: Myths and Realities; Important but not Pervasive: The Shared Limits of Secondary Law in the Common Markets of Europe and South America; Democracy in the European Union; Can Mainstreaming Save EU Social Policy?; The Cases of Gender, Disability and Elderly Policy; Constructing Equality in Europe: The Case of Women's Rights in Italy and the UK; On the Problems of Home Country Control; Measuring the Cost of Increasing Inequality; Approaching the Endgame: Polish Public Opinion and the Changing Euro-Debate in the Run up to the 2003 EU Accession Referendum; Austria: Exceptionalism, Myth and Pariah; The Amsterdam CFSP Components: A Lowest Common Denominator Agreement?; Index.

The contributors include researchers from the ten CEECs, as well as from current EU member countries."--BOOK JACKET.

To date, critical analysis of the EMU project has largely been advanced from the centre-right spectrum of British politics. Comparable questions from the centre-left have failed to find a coherent voice. Although, the European fault-line cannot be characterized as a neat Left-Right issue there are noticeable divisions in opinion across British business, the trade union movement and within the Labour Party. Offering a unique insight into this key debate from the ‘centre-left’, eurosceptic view point, this book provides a rigorous analysis of all the salient economic and political issues of concern, such as: * the economics of a single currency * employment and social implications * sovereignty * political determination. The arguments presented in this volume highlight the emergence of a coherent alternative to deepening economic integration as a platform to build a just and equitable society. Contributions are drawn from leading academics, trade union leaders and prominent politicians, both from the Labour Party and the wider progressive Left in British politics. This informative and thought provoking book will be indispensable reading for students and practitioners in economics, politics and international relations, as well as those interested in this highly contentious topic.

Offering a fresh take on a crucial phase of European history, this book explores the years between the 1980s and 1990s when the European Union took shape. Whilst contributing to existing literature on the Maastricht Treaty and European integration at the end of the twentieth century, the book also brings those debates into the twenty-first century and makes connections with longer-term issues. The transformation of the European political climate in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, and the watershed Brexit vote in 2016, has made it all the more urgent to reconsider the way scholars and opinion-makers have looked at European integration in the past. Drawing from recently released archival documents, the authors analyse European cooperation as part of the broader international history in which it unfolded, taking into account the changes in the Cold War order and the advance of a new phase of globalisation. Comparing and contrasting the debates, objectives and achievements of the 1980s and 1990s with the current political landscape of the European Union, this book proposes a novel interpretation of the choices that were made during the Maastricht years, and of their longer-term consequences.

Competition policy is the first truly supranational public policy regulating market competition in the European Union. This book offers the first thorough investigation of competition policy, analyzing where it has succeeded and where and how it has failed to achieve its objectives of preventing excessive market concentration.

The financial crisis of 2008-09 took an unexpected turn upon challenging a core symbol of Europe's integration project, the Euro. In this volume, leading experts tackle questions on the capacity of the EU to respond, the manner discontent electorates will hold their leaders to account, and the implications for Europe's future relations with Russia.