Books

What does the European Union mean to you? Unless you are an expert or insider, Brussels is far away, with large buildings and closed conclaves. But that anonymous European Union is in a state of revolution. In this book Marc De Vos describes how the climate crisis, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the end of globalisation, and the new cold war with China, have made the European Union the most important political force in Europe. He shows how the mission and identity of the European Union are transforming: from a European community into a geostrategic coalition of European and Eurasian countries, from a union of values into a union of power, and from a market project into a state project.

 

 

The EU is becoming a federal superpower in a new world order. However, this happens almost unnoticed, in response to external crises and above the heads of European citizens. This book exposes growing tensions within this new European Union: between values and interests, geography and geopolitics, democracy and technocracy, market and state, and European member states themselves. If its de facto transformation is not supported by a new political structure, a crisis of effectiveness and legitimacy is looming that could ultimately threaten the European Union itself.