Rethinking the European Union

Rethinking the European Union draws together contributors from across Europe to reflect upon methods of conceptualising the European Union within both changing global and European contexts. The European Union is a unique combination of roles and identities, and many levels can be visualised. It is not only an integration building process, with economic and political facets, both directed, and incarnated through the creation of institutions and structures. The authors suggest that what is needed are new ways of thinking about the EU that make it possible to accommodate different aspects of the Union. Rethinking takes the themes of institutions, interests and identities as its organising framework within which each contributor offers a distinctive commentary on the EU. The outcome is a text that goes beyond an exploration of the existing methods of conceptualising the European integration process and reflects upon the nature of the EU itself.