Richard Youngs - Europe Reset: New Directions for the Eu

richard youngs is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and a professor of international relations at the University of Warwick. He has authored eleven previous books, including, most recently, Europes Eastern Crisis: The Geopolitics of Asymmetry (2017), The Puzzle of Non - Western Democracy (2015) and Europe in the New Middle East (2014).

Since the economic recession of 2008, the EU has been hit by a series of crises, most recently the UKs decision to leave the union following the Brexit referendum. In light of this, questions have been raised about the need to reform the whole model of European integration, with the aim of making the union more flexible and more accountable.

In this book, Richard Youngs proposes an alternative vision of European cooperation and shows how the EU must reinvent itself if it is to survive. He argues that citizens should play a greater role in European decision-making, that there should be radically more flexibility in the process of integration and that Europe needs to take a new, more coherent, approach to questions of defence and security. In proposing this model for a reset version of Europe, Youngs reinvigorates the debate around the future of Europe and puts forward a new agenda for the future of the EU.

An original and provocative contribution to the continuing debate about the future of Europe. The EU at the time of writing seems to be recovering from the succession of problems created by the financial crisis and its impact on the euro. As Richard Youngs stresses, much more is needed. Output democracy is not enough reform must be driven by citizenship engagement and activism, and on a wide scale.

Lord Anthony Giddens

The European Union has muddled through many crises in recent years. If it is to survive in the age of populism, and indeed to thrive, it must urgently rethink its purpose and methods. EU leaders would do well to read Richard Youngss book. He is surely right in arguing that the EU needs much more flexibility in what it does, and much greater democratic legitimacy for it.

Anton La Guardia, Deputy Foreign Editor at
The Economist and co-author of Unhappy Union

In a bold attempt to jumpstart new thinking on the future of the EU, Richard Youngs is not afraid to challenge conventions. He rightly encourages leaders to base Europes future course on European citizens own compasses. Let us hope his book leads to more creative solutions to the EUs democracy challenge.

Marietje Schaake, MEP

While their governments struggle with multiple crises, European citizens feel they run into the wall of Brussels consensus. In this stimulating book, Richard Youngs rightly diagnoses the need to reconnect democratic civic energies with innovative policy-making for a continent that is ready for a new politics.

Luuk van Middelaar, author of The Passage to Europe

Published in 2018 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2018 Richard Youngs

The right of Richard Youngs to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

ISBN: 978 1 78831 057 4
eISBN: 978 1 78672 320 8
ePDF: 978 1 78673 320 7

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Text design, typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London