The Internal Market in Decision-making in the European Union, p60-89

Decision-making in the European Union:

Decision-making in the European Union is another contribution in the Macmillan European Union series. It has two main purposes. The first is the aim to make an original scholarly contribution to the literature on EU politics and policy-making. It arises out of a four year research project on EU decision-making, which has focused primarily on specific cases of decision making in the period 1994-98. In pursuing the research, the authors have conducted nearly 500 interviews across Europe, and reviewed archive material in addition to studying the available literature.

The second aim is to bring the EU alive for a wide and general audience. In doing this, the authors have written a clear and user-friendly text which should be accessible to both an academic and non-specialist audience. Arising out of the interviews, the text contains many direct quotations from key decision-makers. There are also case studies of the Amsterdam Treaty, co-decision, the EU's banana policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, eastern enlargement, the regulation of motorbike power, 'television without frontiers', trade policy, the launch of European Monetary Union, and a range of other recent episodes in EU decision making. These are fitted into a framework of chapters that cover an introduction to decision-making and EU politics, institutions, rules and norms, the internal market, external trade policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, cohesion, environmental, research and technology policies and the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The result is a readable text on various aspects of decision-making in the EU, providing the reader with both a general text on decision-making, and easily found and followed case studies by way of illustration.