Institutional Challenges in the European Union

Madeleine O. Hosli, Mika Widgrén, Adrian M. A. van Deemen, Madeleine O. Hosli, Mika Widgrén, Adrian M. A. van Deemen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134528950
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The European Union (EU) is a continuously evolving entity. Starting with six member states in the late 1950s, the EU currently encompasses fifteen states of Western Europe. It is expected to almost double in size in the near future, however, taking in a number of states located in Central and Eastern Europe, in addition to Cyprus and Malta. This dramatic increase has lead to an intensive debate on how the institutions of the EU should be adapted in order to cope with this growth. This book addresses the challenges that EU enlargement and institutional change imply for various policy fields, such as EU trade policy, agriculture and monetary policy in the framework of European economic and monetary union. It will be of interest to economists and political scientists seeking an up-to-date overview of institutional challenges facing the European Union

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Reforming the European Commission: discourse, culture and planned change
• 2 The European Parliament and executive politics in the EU: voting behaviour and the Commission President investiture procedure
• 3 Widening versus deepening the European Union: an institutional analysis
• 4 Effects of enlargement on efficiency and coalition formation in the Council of the European Union
• 5 The EU decision-making procedures: some insight from non-cooperative Game Theory
• 6 Agenda-setting, amendments, information and optimal level of integration
• 7 Institutional reform and decision-making in the European Union
• 8 From an ever-growing towards an ever-slower Union?
• 9 Revisiting trade competence in the European Union: Amsterdam, Nice, and beyond
• 10 The European Central Bank: exploring institutional independence and the need for reform
• 11 Reforming the common agricultural policy and the EU's structural funds in the face of eastwards enlargement
• Conclusions
• Index