Changing Europe: Identities, nations and citizens

Book abstract:

The Treaty of Paris in 1951 created the European Coal and Steel Community. This was recognised as the first step in the process of European integration, and is the springboard from which Europe has been continually changing and expanding itself since. From its six founding countries, the European Union (EU) now includes fifteen Member States and, with the recent introduction and consolidation of the euro, has become increasingly active in the global marketplace and in world affairs overall. This volume, brought together by different contributors, attempts to confront the changes faced by this new dynamic Europe and the key issues and problems facing its citizens.

Over eleven chapters, the book is both broad and detailed in scope. It deals with several significant subjects which are addressed on a number of levels: the region, the nation, the state, and the EU itself. It further consists of discussions on the following topics: enlargement and the EU; EU institutions and economic policy; the concept of European citizenship and identity(ies); nationalism and regionalisation; European nation-states; integration, globalisation, migration, asylum-seeking, and human rights.

Aimed both at scholars and students of European politics and societies, the book provides an introduction to many of the major issues, prospects and challenges facing an always transforming and growing Europe at the start of the twenty first century.