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Description
This revised edition of The European Council by Wessels and Schramm offers comprehensive coverage of the institution's development since the mid-1970s. The text offers a nuanced assessment of the European Council's impact on EU governance and institutional balance whilst providing readers with a theoretical framework and conceptual models for understanding the significance of the European Council.
New features in this edition include expanded discussions on the three key policy areas addressed in the text: economic governance, external action, and the realm of freedom, security, and justice. These updates encompass crucial developments such as the euro crisis, the migration crisis, and Brexit. Moreover, the text provides current up-to-date coverage of recent EU priorities, including responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, climate policies, the conflict in Ukraine, and the prospects of EU enlargement.
As a highly accessible and comprehensive text, this updated edition is key for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students studying Politics and International Relations as well as postgraduate students taking European Studies courses.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: The Many Faces of the European Council
2. Multiple Approaches for Understanding a Contested Institution: Three Models
3. Pre-History: the Birth of Institutionalised Summitry
4. History: Generations of Leaders and the Institutional Trajectory
PART II: THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL WITHIN THE EU ARCHITECTURE
5. Political and Procedural Leadership: General Functions and Specific Powers
6. Towards a New Institutional Balance? Trends in Inter-Institutional Relations
PART III: INSIDE THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL: THE DYNAMICS OF DECISION MAKING
7. The Presidency: Charismatic Master or Facilitating Manager?
8. Rules for Organisation: the Search for an Optimal Institutional Arrangement
9. Decision-Making: The Ways to Consensus Formation
10. Decision-Making: The Power Dimension
PART IV: ACTIVITIES, AGREEMENTS AND ACTS
11. Deepening: The Constitutional Architect
12. Widening: The Master of Enlargement
13. Economic Governance: Towards a 'gouvernement économique'?
14. External Action: In Search of a Coherent and Effective Global Role
15. The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Pre-Constitutional and Pre-Legislative Functions
PART V: CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: A KEY INSTITUTION'S RISE AND DECLINE?
16. The European Council: Looking Back to Look Forward.
Product details
| Published | Apr 02 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 2nd |
| Extent | 320 |
| ISBN | 9781350462717 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Series | The European Union Series |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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