European-Union

I use this book as part of the literature for a graduate course on EU Enlargement. I find it well-written, informative and I especially like the historical context, of how the 'rules for EC enlargement' were created over time: It shows that many problems and issues of current EU Enlargement were issues and problems of previous enlargements as well. I also liked the clear explanation of the strong linkages between widening and deepening of EU integration over time, and how each enlargement more or less strongly affected the existing EC MS. The book is not very technical and I'd definitely recommended it for students of political economy, economics and political science!

While Nabokov's version is a very literal translation of Pushkin's epic poem, Sir Charles Johnston attempts to emulates the original spirit of the piece by maintaining the original epic poem's rhyme scheme. An admirable, well-executed undertaking!

As a "student" of European politics, I found Vibert's book an interesting alternative to the politics of integration. I doubt that his "full throttle" approach will be accepted, but his inclusion of the values and the processes that must go into constitution-building fills a gap sadly neglected in the political theory field.
I was especially impressed by his comparison of the European Union and the United States as examples of constitutional unions. The benefits and the warnings which he presented based on the US model were carefully and expertly applied in his analysis of the current European developments.

Tony Fleming
arfleming@gems.vcu.edu

As an economist at the EC I found this book a good reference work on EMU, strong especially on the history of ERM and EMU and the institutional set-up of both. The arguments pro and con on EMU were well presented and often subtle. Overall highly recommended as textbook for graduate students and professional economists.

Verdun aims to discover why, given that EMU greatly reduced national sovereignty, there was so little public discussion of its costs and benefits. As she noted of EMU, "This transfer of national sovereignty can arguably be considered to be one of the most far-reaching formal transfers of sovereignty to the European level that the European Community (EC) members have witnessed to date." She studied the ways that central bankers, Ministries of Finance, employers' organisations and trade union leaderships in Britain, France and Germany all perceived EMU. The bankers, Ministries and employers' organisations agreed that EMU would strengthen the market mechanism in Europe. They also agreed that it would assist their efforts to create a single European state. As Verdun observed, "EMU will eventually necessitate more integration of economic, fiscal, social and labour policies." Some quarters of the TUC hoped that associating themselves with the EU's decision-making process would increase their power. But the more the TUC claimed to set the EU agenda on social and employment issues, the more it linked itself to the EU's disastrous impact on Britain's industry and welfare. Some trade union leaders thought that the EU would restore the influence over economic policy-making that they had lost at national level. But cosying up to the employer, whether European or British, weakens our unions, not strengthens us. Some thought that possible gains from the Social Charter would justify the certain losses from labour market flexibility. But who talks about the Social Charter today? Did it save any of the 96,000 manufacturing jobs destroyed in Britain last year? So why was there so little public discussion of EMU's costs and benefits? Verdun does not finally explain, but one suspects that it was because its benefits would accrue only to the ruling classes of Britain, France and Germany, while the public, the vast majority of us who have to work for a living, would suffer all the costs.

i am reading this book for a class on the european union and integration of europe. each of us students has a member state and this book helped greatly introducing me to the states and their stances on enlargement, economics and foreing relations. i highly recomind this book to any student studying the european union.

At the beginning I had to read this book for school. I was ready to force myself upon it, setting up a schedule for how many pages I needed to read a night. After the first few pages however I was hooked. It starts out mysterious and you dont really understand it all until the end. Even after I was through reading it I went on the internet to research it! Dont judge this book from its cover, like I did. Read it, its very good!

I knew virtually nothing about the Europena Union before reading this book, so I don't know how valuable it would be for an experienced EU scholar. However, for someone like myself it covers all the basics (what istitutions are involved?) and a good history from conception to today. The reading is a little dry, mostly due to the number of details involved, but not difficult to read. It makes a good starting point for those wishing to familiarize themselves with the the general history of European integration before going on to further study.

Although unexpected because of the primarily economic nature of the integration project, the European Union over the past three decades has gradually expanded women's rights and gender equality norms. Even more surprisingly, the Europeanization of domestic gender policy has advanced, too, despite the conspicuous cross-national diversity of gender cultures and regimes in the enlarging EU.

This book adopts a comparative Europeanization framework to explore the gender dimensions of Europeanization and domestic change in a multiple Europe. Ranging from member state resistance to learning and adaptation, and eventually to transformation and innovation, EU-states have engaged with the challenge to transpose EC equal opportunity directives since 1975 in variable ways. Depending on their cultural and institutional settings, gender issues have sparked juridical, legislative and even public controversy. The book argues that the variable outcomes of the interplay between EU gender equality norms and domestic gender policy regimes depend on the gender politics of Europeanization: in particular, on the patterns of women's political representation, the gender sensitivity of public debates, and transnational networks supporting gender equality advocacy.

The eight chapters present the innovative research findings of an international group of social and political scientists based at the University of Bremen, Germany. After mapping the institutional, cognitive and agency related mechanisms involved in the Europeanization of domestic gender policy, the volume offers six comparative country studies: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. It concludes with a comparative analysis of the gender politics of Europeanization, its patterns and dynamics.

Included is a valuable appendix with comparative statistical data on gender gaps in the development of European labour markets; a list of the gender equality directives adopted by the European Community/European Union and of European Court of Justice decisions in the domain of gender equality (1970-2002).

Contributors: Veronica Arpaia (Rome), Marina Calloni (Milan), Jörn Ketelhut (Bremen), Petra Kodré (Bremen), Amy Mazur (Washington State), Henrike Müller (Bremen), Silke Reuter (Bremen), Verena Schmidt (Bochum), Stefanie Sifft (Bremen), Milena Sunnus (Bremen), Celia Valiente (Madrid).

Ulrike Liebert is professor of Political Science and holds the Jean Monnet Chair in Comparative European Politics, Centre for European Studies, University of Bremen, Germany.

I just returned from my first trip to the Republic of Georgia. I say "first" because my wife and I both fell in love with the place and we are already planning our return.

I read Peter Nasmyth's book shortly before travelling to Georgia, and I found it an excellent preparation. Nasmyth's book is largely a report of his own travels in Georgia, first shortly before independence, then just after the brief civil war and also more recently. It doesn't give as much historical and descriptive material as a standard travel book would, and the photos (which Nasmyth took himself) are in black and white.

What comes across most vividly, however, is the Georgian people, and this is as it should be, since, although Georgia has an abundance of natural and historical beauty, it is the people that one falls in love with.

Lancelot Fletcher lance.fletcher@freelance-academy.org