Fusing with Europe? Sweden in the European Union

Abstract:

Fusion in this context relates to the process of European integration ‘by which national and community actors increasingly merge resources in joint institutions and complex procedures’. The quotation is from Wolfgang Wessels, ‘Nice Results: The Millennium IGC in the EU’s Evolution’. The author has chosen to apply this approach to analysis of Sweden’s role in the evolution of the European Union.

The book is organised over eight chapters. Following an opening chapter giving the background, chapter two introduces the fusion perspective that can be applied at the micro level of national EU policy and the basis upon which the later chapters build. The third chapter examines key Swedish governmental institutions and parliamentary arrangements from the fusion perspective. Chapter four is focussed upon the wider political actors such as the main political parties, key interest groups and corporate actors - which again are examined from a fusion perspective. Chapter five explores the policy dynamics at work in Swedish policy priorities and charts the development of Swedish policy since 1995. Chapter six then presents the first of two case studies which support earlier argument by shifting the focus to two major policy evaluations, in this case Swedish monetary policy and, in the next chapter, Swedish security policy. The final chapter draws together the arguments of the earlier chapters and suggests that the time might be right for Sweden to explore an explicit micro fusion perspective to underpin the Swedish national EU policy.

The work will interest scholars and students, policy researchers and policy makers engaged in European Studies and European integration.