1st Edition

Institutional Challenges in the European Union

    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

    1. Michelle Cini Reforming the European Commission: Discourse, Culture and Planned Change 2. Matthew Gabel and Simon Hix The European Parliament and Executive Politics in the EU: Voting Behaviour and the Commission President Investiture Procedure 3. Rachel Brewster, Michael Munger and Thomas Oatley Widening versus Deepening the European Union: an Institutional Analysis 4. Madeleine O. Hosli and Adrian M. A. van Deemen Effects of Enlargement on Efficiency and Coalition Formation in the Council of the European Union 5. Annick Laruelle The EU Decision-Making Procedures: Some Insight from Non-Cooperative Game Theory 6. Mika Widgrén Agenda-Setting, Amendments, Information and Optimal Level of Integration 7. Jonathan Golub Institutional Reform and Decision Making in the European Union 8. Thomas König and Thomas Bräuninger From an Ever-Growing Towards an Ever-Slower Union? 9. Kalypso Nicolaïdis and Sophie Meunier Revisiting Trade Competence in the European Union: Amsterdam, Nice, and Beyond 10. Peter H. Loedel The European Central Bank: Exploring Institutional Independence and the Need for Reform 11. Heather Field Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy and the EU's Structural Funds in the Face of Eastwards Enlargement Conclusions

    Biography

    Madeleine O. Hosli is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at the Free University of Amsterdam. She has taught at the European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht, the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva and the University of Michigan.
    Adrian M. A. van Deemen is a Senior Lecturer at the Nijmegen School of Management, University of Nijmegen.
    Mika Widgrén is a Professor of International Economics at the Turku School of Economics and Business, Finland. Before taking up this position, he was the Research Director of the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation in Helsinki.