European integration after Amsterdam. Institutional dynamics and prospects for democracy

Book abstract:

With the conclusion of the Amsterdam and Maastricht treaties, European integration is at a turning point with implications for all Member States. Integration has involved a continually evolving process of constitution making, and it is argued here that the shift towards constitutional issues in the Treaty of Amsterdam is rooted not only in the issues on the European level, but also in shifting models of political and economic organisation in the Member States. The contributors address questions such as: what are the likely effects of the Amsterdam Treaty changes in comparison with Maastricht? How will these changes affect the complex balance among the governing institutions of the EU and what will be the implications for the quest for democracy? The essays result from a number of meetings held in Brussels, which were organised by the Research Committee on European Unification of the International Political Science Association.

Chapters headings are: The Amsterdam Treaty: the blueprint for the future institutional balance?; The European Commission: a balancing act between autonomy and dependence; The slow march of European legislation: the implementation of Directives; Beyond Amsterdam: regional integration as social process; Executive selection in the European Union: does the Commission president investiture procedure reduce the democratic deficit?; Justifying comitology: the promise of deliberation; Political representation in the European Union: a common whole, various wholes or just a hole?; negotiating flexible integration in the Amsterdam Treaty; Flexibility: a tool of integration or a restraint on disintegration?; Abuses of asymmetry: privilege and exclusion; East of Amsterdam: the implications of the Amsterdam Treaty for Eastern enlargement; Precedents and present events in the European Union: an institutional perspective on treaty reform; A Blairite treaty: neo-liberalism and regulated capitalism in the Treaty of Amsterdam; Constitutional settlements and the citizen after the Treaty of Amsterdam; and The embedded Acquis Communautaire: transmission belt and prism of new governance.