Representing Europeans: a pragmatic approach

Introduction : the end of integration by stealth -- The EU system : accountable up to a point -- Forging an ever closer union -- A union of diverse peoples -- Citizenship lite -- Referendums : too much participation? -- Unequal representation in the European Parliament -- European parties : integration before representation -- Interdependence : how policy changes politics -- The future of Europe : an every looser union?

Representing Europeans takes a fresh and quizzical look at the problems facing the European Union. Bringing decades of experience to bear on the deep, structural problems currently facing the EU, Richard Rose spells out why it can no longer carry on with integration by stealth. Extraordinary challenges -- such as saving the Eurozone and maintaining the free movement of peoples -- now impose high-profile economic and political costs. These create huge political strains which EUinstitutions struggle to cope with. Rose shows the ways in which Europe's institutions do and do not represent its citi

"Representing Europeans makes a fresh assessment of the challenge facing the European Union today: it can no longer carry out integration by stealth. Measures adopted to save the eurozone impose visible political costs without clearly visible benefits. There is a lack of popular commitment to more European integration because EU institutions represent its citizens indirectly or not at all. Reliance on citizenship lite is politically dangerous, since people retain the power to reject their national government because of commitments it makes in Brussels. The book's pragmatic approach recommends that enhanced European integration should be based on coalitions of the willing and accommodation of the unwilling. Federalists and Eurosceptics will alternatively agree and disagree with the argument of this book. But they cannot ignore the challenge it raises for the EU to pay more attention to the half a billion people it claims to represent."--back cover