Understanding EU policy making

EU policy shapes all areas of our lives - from our money, to our food, to our welfare. Yet we know little about how EU decisions are made, and who benefits from them. This book is a critical guide to the policies of the EU.

Raj Chari and Sylvia Kritzinger argue that there is an agenda that underlies EU policy making. Some policies - those that aim to create a competitive economy - are prioritised, while others are effectively ignored.

Setting the EU in a proper economic and theoretical context, the authors provide a chapter-by-chapter analysis of each of the EU's major policy areas. Arguing that traditional accounts of EU integration are inadequate, the authors develop an innovative new perspective.

Written with clarity and precision, this book is ideal for students of the EU and anyone looking for an incisive critique of the role of corporate capital in the development of EU policy.

Chapters are:

1. A Supranational or a Decentralised EU?

2. Who's Coming to Play? Policy-Making Actors in the EU

3. Understanding EU Policy-Making: Major Theories and New Insights

4. Single Market Policy: Creating a Strong Neo-Liberal Market in the Global Economy

5. Competition Policy: Ensuring a Competitive European Market.

6. Economic and Monetary Union: The Making of the Money Tree

7. Common Agricultural Policy: Redistributive Policy in Favour of Whom?

8. Social Policy: Demonstrating European Incapability and Differences

9. Policies of Freedom, Security and Justice: A Limited Role for the EU

10. External Policies: Divided We Stand, United We Fall

11. Conclusions: Understanding the Present, Changing the Future.