One of the phenomenal things about the European Union is its extraordinary capacity to be able to work both as a unified entity, in which all 27 voices act as one, and as a federation, in fact, of its member states. In order to be able to function in this manner, the European Union also needs functional institutions. John McCormick is keen in this part of the book to describe both how all these European institutions operate internally (the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and the European Council and Specialized Agencies) and, additionally, how they are able to work with one another in a functional manner. Each of these institutions is allocated a separate chapter, with generally the same structure that includes the institution's structure, its evolution, functionality and the way it works etc.
The final part of the book deals with policies. Policies, in fact, make institutions work and they manage to fix rules to which all countries members of the European Union must adhere by. Some of these are extremely complicated: the common agricultural policy, for example, dates almost to the very beginning of the European Union (back in the 1960s) and has evolved throughout time, despite remaining one of the fundamental pillars of the EU policies. Other policies, such as the cohesion policy, described in chapter 14, help new member states better integrate, from an economical and social perspective, into the union by allocating specific budgets for the development of certain regions.
The last two chapters, despite belonging to the same part on policies, have a forward looking perspective, trying to discuss the common foreign and security policies that the European Union is trying to put in place (chapter 15) and determine how the EU and the U.S. are likely to be working together in the next period of time, as well as the challenges that this relationship is likely to face.
In terms of the common foreign and security policy, the author is keen to emphasize the economic role of the European Union...
At the same time, John McCormick shows the importance of the relations with Russia in the behavior of the EU, especially given the strong economic bonds that the EU has with Russia and, most notably, the energy dependency on Russian gas.
Finally, the last chapter deals, as mentioned, with the relations between the U.S. And the EU. The disputes between the EU and the U.S. are generally based on differences between these two structures, but do not necessarily challenge the viability of the transatlantic relationship, as long as this is accepted as a flexible relationship between the two partners.
Besides the mentioned part, the book also come with several useful appendices, dealing with the chronology of the European integration and with a long list of sources of information, providing thus the appropriate premises for further study. At the same time, the glossary is also very useful, especially since some of the terms used in the EU policies and institutions are rather complicated and strict in their application.
All in all, this book provides an excellent resource on the European Union, no matter what the level of knowledge of the reader. At the same time, it is very well structured, which increases its accessibility and facilitates research through the different chapters of the book. Further more, the book really acts just as a starting point for some studying the European Union, its institutions and policies - the author provides an ample list of sources, books, articles or links that can complete one's research.
This book could, however, be more complete if it were to tackle some of the current issues of great interests nowadays for the EU, things such as the European Treaty of Lisbon and the perspectives of a Turkish integration in the future.
Bibliography
1. McCormick, John. The European Union: Politics and Policies. Westview Press; Fourth Edition (December 24, 2007)
