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The EU poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. Its appeal will reside not only in its comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the field, but also in the quality of its contributors, and the diversity of the theoretical and methodological approach included

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Graphs -- List of Tables -- List of Appendixes -- Chapter 1 Introducing Discourse Analysis in EU Politics -- What Is Discourse Analysis? -- Discourse Analysis in the Study of the EU -- Scope of Research -- Approaches and Research Themes -- What Can't Discourse Analysis Be Used for? -- The Aim of the Book and Its Approach to Discourse Analysis -- Structure of the Book -- References -- Chapter 2 Discourse Analysis as a Research Strategy -- Agency-Structure as a Continiuum -- Discursive Conflict-Consensus as a Continiuum -- Causality and Types of Explanations -- Discourse Analysis and Time -- Multi-theoretical Analysis and Counterfactual Reasoning -- Ideas, Discourse and Institutions: A General Analytical Framework -- References -- Chapter 3 Discourse Analysis, Data and Research Techniques -- What to Read? -- Documents -- Interviews and 'Naturally Occurring Talk' -- Survey Questionnaires -- Non-linguistic Data -- How to Read? -- Content Analysis and Computer-Assisted Text Analysis -- Problem Perception Analysis -- References -- Chapter 4 Discourse and EU Policy-Making -- Reforms and Actors in the CAP -- A Mechannism of Resistance: Discursive Path-Dependency -- Two Conditions for Transformation: One Necessary and One Conducive -- First Mechanism of Transformation: Discursive Ambiguity -- Second Mechanism of Transformation: Translation -- Third Mechanism of Transformation: Discursive Entrepreneurship -- Fourth Mechannism of Transformation: Expertise -- Expertise in EU Policy-Making -- References -- Chapter 5 Discourse and the Strategic Usage of Europe -- 'Europe' as a Strategic Discursive Resource -- Three Conditions Conducive for the Strategic Usage of Discourse -- How Can It Be Determined Whether Decision-Makers Invoke Discourse Strategically?.

AbstractIn the multilevel system of the European Union (EU), national governments have been empowered at the expense of parliaments. We study the executive power shift in EU politics in the formation of national preferences. This article shows that governments are more likely to integrate parliaments and external actors, such as other governments and EU institutions, when they advocate extreme bargaining positions in EU negotiations. We theoretically develop this argument and provide an empirical study of Eurozone politics, covering the preference formation of 27 EU member states. The analysis shows that the executives are overall the dominating power: most of the time, governments form national preferences on their own. When governments integrate additional actors, they mostly rely on external actors and do so to avoid blame and to shift responsibility. These findings question whether the integration of national parliaments in EU politics indeed addresses democratic accountability concerns.

The EU poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. Its appeal will reside not only in its comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the field, but also in the quality of its contributors, and the diversity of the theoretical and methodological approach included.

Energy policy has been considered as a "special case of Europeanization," due to its tardy and patchy development as a domain of EU activity as well as its important but highly contested external dimension. Divergent energy pathways across Member States and the sensitivity of this policy domain have militated against a unified European Energy Policy. And yet, since the mid-2000s cooperation in this policy area has picked up speed, leading to the adoption of the Energy Union, presented by the European Commission as the most ambitious energy initiative since the European Coal and Steel Community. This dynamism has attracted growing scholarly attention, seeking to determine whether, why and how European Energy Policy has consolidated against all odds during a particularly critical moment for European integration. The underlying question that emerges in this context is whether the Energy Union represents a step forward towards a more homogenous and joined-up energy policy or, rather a strategy to manage heterogeneity through greater flexibility and differentiated integration. Given the multilevel and multisectoral character­ istics of energy policy, answering these questions requires a three-fold analysis of (1) the degree of centralization of European Energy Policy (vertical integration), (2) the coher­ ence between energy sub-sectors (cross-sectoral integration), and (3) the territorial ex­ tension of the energy acquis beyond the EU Member States (horizontal integration). Tak­ en together, the Energy Union has catalyzed integration on the three dimensions. First, EU institutions are formally involved in almost every aspect of energy policy, including sensitive areas such as ensuring energy supplies. Second, the Energy Union, with its new governance regulation, brings under one policy framework energy sub-sectors that had developed in silos. And finally, energy policy is the only sector that has generated a multi­ lateral process dedicated to the integration of non-members into the EU energy market. However, this ...