The future of Europe. Integration and enlargement

Abstract:

The European Union is on the threshold of its most challenging enlargement and moving towards agreement on a constitutional treaty. This work seeks to analyse the state of the Union as it stands on that threshold.

The book is comprised of nine chapters, opening with an introduction by the editor who reviews the widening and deepening debate which has been a feature of the EU since its foundation. The following chapter examines the Convention on the Future of Europe and the draft constitutional treaty. Chapter three covers the lengthy and difficult negotiations for enlargement, and is followed by one assessing the new Member States and their likely contribution to the enlarged Union. The fifth chapter examines the economic dimension of the enlarged Union, particularly from the perspective of the eight Central and Eastern European countries. Chapter six addresses the relationship of the EU with its neighbours in the Wider Europe, while the security implications of the enlarged EU are examined in chapter seven. The transatlantic dimension is the subject of chapter eight, which discusses US attitudes towards enlargement and integration. In the final chapter the editor draws together the main themes of the earlier papers and offers some signposts as to the way forward.

The work will interest scholars and students of European politics and European Studies.

Fraser Cameron is Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.