Ever since it was first published, Leonards Guide to the European Union has played an invaluable role in unravelling these mysteries and complexities [of the European Union]. It is especially valuable, and rare, for doing so in a sober, meticulous and non-partisan way... No one could be better qualified to produce an updated, authoritative and highly readable guide than Leonard and Taylor.
Bill Emmott, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist 19932006.
The Routledge Guide to the EU is the best book I know that explains clearly the complexities of the EU to the intelligent layman... Curious voters will find this book a useful source of objective information about the EU, and I have no doubt that it will be respected as such by both defenders and critics of the EU. In the longer run many students, business people or politicians that need to deal with the Brussels institutions will feel that they should own this book.
Charles Grant, Director of the influential think-tank, the Centre for European Reform (CER).
Dick Leonards Guide to the European Union has long had a deserved reputation for clarity and reliability. His new, updated edition comes at an important moment in the history of European integration and will be a valuable aid to the public debate in Britain and throughout the European Union.
John Palmer, former European Editor of The Guardian and former Political Director of the European Policy Centre.
The Routledge Guide to the
European Union
Written by experts, this long-established and definitive guide to the workings of the European Union provides comprehensive, straightforward and readable coverage of this sometimes misunderstood and complex institution. It explains not only what happens but also why, and analyses the EUs strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities for it to be more effective. With the EUs very existence under pressure due to fiscal crises and the eurozone, migration and borders, and Euroscepticism, it specifically outlines:
How it works: the institutions, the mechanisms.
Every area of EU competence from agriculture to workers rights.
The effects of the single market and the single currency and the successes and stresses of the eurozone.
The impact of the enlargement of the EU and the prospects for further enlargement and for closer political integration.
The EU under strain the 2008 recession and after.
Britain in or out.
Fully updated and revised material with new data, statistics, examples and non-partisan coverage.
The Routledge Guide to the European Union is well-established as the clearest and most comprehensive guide to how the EU operates. This new edition brings you up to date at a crucial stage in its history at a time when, arguably, it has never been under greater threat, but conversely is perhaps more important than ever.
Dick Leonard is a journalist, author and former Labour MP. He was Assistant Editor of The Economist for 12 years, and has also worked for The Observer, the BBC, the Fabian Society, the Centre for European Policy Studies and the Publishers Association.
Robert Taylor runs European Research Associates, a Brussels consultancy specialising in European public policy. For more than 30 years, he worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent, covering the European Union, reporting on its performance, policies and personalities.
The Routledge Guide to
the European Union
Previously known as The Economist Guide
to the European Union
Dick Leonard and Robert Taylor
First edition published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2016 Dick Leonard and Robert Taylor
The right of Dick Leonard and Robert Taylor to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Previously known as The Economist Guide to the European Union
First edition published by The Economist - Blackwell 1988
Tenth edition published by The Economist - Profile Books Ltd. 2010
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-67038-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-67039-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61765-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK
In memory of Dr Gertrud Heidelberger, my mother-in-law, an indomitable lady who represented all that is best in European culture DL
Contents
PART I
The background
PART II
The institutions
PART III
The competences
PART IV
Special problems
Dick Leonard
Courtesy of Mark Leonard
Dick Leonard is a journalist, author and former Labour MP. He worked in Brussels for 30 years, writing, primarily, about the European Union, for leading newspapers around the world. A former Assistant Editor of The Economist, he is the author of the best-selling Economist Guide to the European Union, and is the author or part-author of over 20 other books, including most recently, A History of British Prime Ministers: Walpole to Cameron. This contains short biographies and reassessments of all of the 53 British prime ministers. He has also worked for The Observer, the BBC, the Fabian Society, the Centre for European Policy Studies and the Publishers Association. He has taught at the Universities of Essex and Brussels (ULB) and has made five lecture tours to leading American and Canadian universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, the University of California and Queens University, Ontario.
Also by Dick Leonard:
A History of British Prime Ministers: Walpole to Cameron
The Great Rivalry: Gladstone-Disraeli a dual biography, Elections in Britain
Paying for Party Politics
Crosland and New Labour (edited)
The Pro-European Reader (edited with Mark Leonard)
World Atlas of Elections (edited with Richard Natkiel)
The Backbencher and Parliament (edited with Val Herman).
Robert Taylor
