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Studying the informal in European integration : a research guide / Mechthild Roos, with Christine Neuhold -- Of treaties, conventions and habits : how informal integration interacts with formal integration / N. Piers Ludlow -- A wartime narrative of hope : the Freiburger Bonhoeffer-Kreis's 1943 memorandum as a blueprint for Europe / Jorrit Steehouder and Clemens van den Berg -- The controversy surrounding the idea of a European supranational university / Lars Lehmann -- An Atlantic or European Union? : informal networks and the debate on Atlantic and European integration during the early Cold War (1945-1963) / Lennaert van Heumen -- The appeal and limitations of federalism : the Union of European Federalists and the Spanish transition to democracy / Carlos López Gómez -- Human rights and foreign aid : three NGOs influencing the European Community (1974-1979) / Ilaria Zamburlini -- Informality in European foreign policy : the evolution of the early Group of Seven / Andi Shehu -- How lawyers became essential intermediaries between firms and the European Commission : procedural reform in competition cases (1962-1983) / Lola Avril -- The informal character of the Western European Union : European defence, industry and integration / Sara Venditti -- Fuzzy roles in EU external relations governance : the difficult construction of informal policy coordination frameworks / Daniel Schade -- How informality can play out in European integration / Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol.

Informal dimensions of European integration have received limited academic attention to date, despite their historical and contemporary importance. Particularly studies in European integration history, while frequently mentioning informal processes, have as yet rarely conceptualised the study of informality in European integration, and thus fail usually to systematically analyse conditions, impact and consequences of informal action. Including case studies that discuss both successful and failed examples of informal action in European integration, this book assembles cutting-edge research by both early-career and more experienced scholars from all over Europe to fill this lacuna. The chapters of this volume offer a guide to the study of informality and show how informality has impacted European integration history and the functioning of the EC/EU as well as other European organisations in a variety of ways. Reflecting the diversity of studies within this burgeoning field of research, within and across several academic disciplines, the book approaches the informal dimensions of European integration from different disciplinary, methodological and thematic angles. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European integration, EU politics/studies, European politics, European Union history, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.