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The fundamental provisions of EU competition policy have remained virtually intact for sixty years, attesting to their flexibility and continued relevance. Their enforcement in particular focused on protecting the internal market and —in the case of antitrust and mergers— consumer welfare. They have also served the EU's wider policy goals; for example, they directly support several of the current Commission's top priorities such as jobs, growth and investment and the single market (including the digital single market and the energy union). Increasingly, research demonstrates the macroeconomic benefits of competition policy, such as productivity, growth, employment and inequality reduction.

"Cyprus and the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

Das Buch schlägt eine tiefgreifende Reform der EU vor. Defekte der EU werden identifiziert. Die Vorschläge basieren auf den Konzepten begrenzter Supranationalität und einer ausgewogenen Sicht des Nationalstaats. Die EU wird vor allem gebraucht für Frieden, Wohlstand, Kompensation der relativ geringen Größe und begrenzten Macht ihrer Mitgliedstaaten und zur Bewahrung grundlegender Prinzipien der westlichen Zivilisation. Eine ausgewogene Sicht des Nationalstaats bedeutet Erhaltung der Vorteile des gut gestalteten Nationalstaats im Vergleich zur EU sowie Vermeidung von Nationalismus und Krieg. Das Buch schlägt u.a. eine Neugestaltung der EU-Rechtsetzung und der EU-Verträge, eine untergeordnete Rolle der Europäischen Kommission, einen Court of Appeal und eine geänderte Zusammensetzung der Europäischen Zentralbank vor. Möglichkeiten des Überlebens der Eurozone werden diskutiert. Bei praktischer Realisierung dieser Vorschläge könnte sich die EU zukünftig in einem besseren Zustand befinden.

"Russia and the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

"Romania and the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

Coalitions will probably become an increasingly important theme in European Union (EU) politics. The spread of decision making by majority voting promotes coalition‐building behaviour. The impending enlargement is predicted to differentiate and polarize policy standpoints within the EU. Increasing levels of policy conflict imply increased propensities for coalition building. Still, the role and nature of coalitions in EU negotiations are obscure. This article raises important research questions: What characterizes coalition building in the EU? How important are coalitions? What coalition patterns are discernible?Using data from a questionnaire to Swedish participants on EU committees, it is shown that coalitions are more frequent when majority voting occurs than when unanimity rules. Coalition behaviour is, however, important also under unanimity. The existence of consensus norms diminishes the propensity to form coalitions. As regards coalition patterns, there is a prevalence of coalitions based on policy interests and/or on cultural affinity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, consistent and durable coalition patterns seem to exist. The north–south divide is one such persistent pattern. The Swedish respondents thus reveal a close cooperation between the Nordic member states and Great Britain, whereas France and Spain are seldom approached for coalition‐building purposes. As to future research, evidence from other member states and from case studies is needed in order to learn more about the bases for coalition building in EU negotiations.

Even before the end of the first world war, during the inter-war years and right up to the outbreak of the second world war, a vein of political thought ran through Europe, which condemned national sovereignties and set up against them the idea of a European federation.In reality, the federalist trend of thought in the inter-war years remained marginal to the main political currents, and partook more of the nature of prophecy than of politics. In the 1920s and 1930s politics in Europe were both tense and varied, culminating in the emergence of many political-ideological tyrannies. But in spite of the violent divergences over political problems in those years, politics itself, of the right and of the left, of moderates and radicals, of conservatives and revolutionaries, was based on the profound experience which the peoples had lived through during the first world war, namely of the solidity of the nation state. This experience led to the conviction that only on this rock could anything be built.