Volume I examines the history of the European Union from an outside-in perspective, asking the following questions: how does the European Union look from the outside, and which outside forces shaped and guided the process of European integration? Split into three parts, the first addresses the main external events that have steered the European integration process, with emphasis placed on critical junctures following the Second World War, such as the division and reunification of Germany and the Eastern enlargement. Part II considers the various international trends that have shaped European integration, with particular focus on globalisation and geopolitics. While the first two parts pay special attention to institutions, countries, international organisations and the main actors, Part III focuses on the role of ideas, networks, public opinion and memory that influenced the development of the European Union.

The European Union is the most ambitious, and one of the most contentious, international organizations ever created. Decisions made in Brussels shape the lives of over 500 million Europeans, and its laws and policies resonate around the world. But how has the EU endured over three turbulent decades marred by crises at home and abroad? In this major account, Dermot Hodson traces the development of the EU from its establishment in 1993 through to Brexit, Covid-19, and the invasion of Ukraine. Hodson shows how the union has been held together not by faceless technocrats but national leaders who stood together in times of turmoil despite a fierce backlash from a new generation of right-wing populists.

Un ouvrage pour tous ceux qui voudraient prendre position sur le futur de l'Europe. Depuis sa création, les nombreuses crises qu'affronte l'Union européenne la forcent à se réinventer pour répondre aux défis et aux exigences de notre société. Comment ces évolutions ont-elles été rendues possibles? Comment est-on arrivés jusqu'ici? Se basant sur sa riche expérience, Rudy Aernoudt, actuellement senior economist à la Commission européenne, nous propose une analyse profonde et inédite du fonctionnement de l'Europe et des défis qui se présentent à elle.

In several EU Member States, constitutional courts have reviewed European law on its compatibility with national constitutional law. These judgments deal with issues of major importance such as EU democratic legitimacy, the protection of fundamental rights, and the status of national sovereignty within the EU. Yet should national courts decide such issues of key constitutional significance for the EU? Or is it more democratic to leave these matters to political institutions that represent Europe's citizens and are politically accountable to them?

What are the consequences of EU politicization for the EU and European societies? This book shifts the analytical focus from EU politicization processes to their empirical and normative research on the effects of politicization on public opinion, public discourses, policymaking and European integration.

In Europe, the last decade has been shaped by euro crisis, migration crisis and corona crisis. Studies have analyzed how citizens react to crises in their voting behavior. This political economy analysis examines the research gap to what extent repeated crisis exposure within a short period of time can deepen existing Euroskepticism. It is defined as an index consisting of the individual identification as European, the view on the EU and on own country's benefits of EU membership. Survey results of the Eurobarometer of all 28 EU member states, including the United Kingdom, in combination with macroeconomic data are analyzed using modern econometric methods. Bootstrapping and entropy balancing ensure conservative estimates. We find that a single crisis exposure increases existing Euroskepticism, but that the temporal distance between the crises matters.

The Rotating European Union Council Presidency and Small Member States explores the opportunities and burdens for small states of holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. While the functions and the achievements of the Council presidencies have been widely studied on the EU level, this book adopts the inverse and underresearched perspective of looking at the "domestic" impact of the Council presidency on the Member State, specifically small Member States. Combining new institutionalist theoretical approaches under the concept of Europeanisation, and employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, this book explores whether the Council presidency leads to the Europeanisation of national polities and politics. More specifically, the book looks at the impact of the Council presidency on national administrations, ministers and public opinion. It suggests that the Council presidency presents a unique opportunity to (re) engage with EU affairs and institutions for small Member States, especially those holding the position for the first time.