Introduction – the essentials of European integration

Abstract

In the previous two sections of this book, its spirit was expressed in topics which have usually not been treated by past handbooks on European integration, or only very sparingly. We outlined in the introduction to this book that the editors set a remit beyond classical textbooks on European integration. It was also agreed in that remit, however, that some topics are so essential to the European integration process that this Handbook could not do without them. The resulting chapters in the following section are therefore summarised under the heading “Tangibles”, because they treat the concrete results or policies of European integration. The essential reason the editors wanted to include them was to provide an update on classical European integration topics. Many past handbooks have done this. Some have taken a specific focus of current affairs, such as Brexit, which has become a watershed event in European integration (Chaban, Niemann, Speyer, 2020). Others see the renationalisation of European politics as the key tendency of the early 21st century, which merits a revision of our perspective on European integration (Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Leijon, Michalski, Oxelheim, 2020). Amtenbrink, Davies, Kochenov, Lindboon (2019), The Internal Market and the Future of European Integration provides, through its editors, a strong focus on the legal reality of the EU. And, last but not least, one should not forget seminal works on European integration, such as Jones, Menon and Weatherill (2012), and on European integration theory, such as Ben Rosamond’s work on Theories of European integration (2000).