The Euro crisis catapulted the European Union into its most serious political crisis since its inception, leaving it simultaneously torn between opposing demands for more sovereignty and solidarity. Throughout its history, the Union has been plagued by power struggles between its member states. Periodic crises have been met by indecision and compromise that put securing agreement above effective outcomes. The complexity of its decision making processes is mainly due to the refusal to concentrate power and wish to preserve enough semblance of national sovereignty to retain the respect and loyalty of member state citizens. This edited volume focuses on the key themes of disunion, sovereignty and solidarity. It assesses all of the main EU institutions: member states, civil society actors and policy areas.

Rüdiger Wurzel and James Connelly (eds) The European Union as a Leader in International Climate Change Politics. London: Routledge (hardback edition 2010; paperback edition 2012).

The EU has developed into a leader in international climate change politics although it was originally set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’ in which decision-making powers are spread amongst EU institutional, member state and societal actors. The central aim of this book, which is written by leading experts in the field, is to explain what kind of leadership has been offered by EU institutional, member state and societal actors. Although leadership is the overarching theme of the book, all chapters also address ecological modernisation, policy instruments, and multi-level governance as additional main themes. The book chapters focus on the Commission, European Parliament, European Council and Council of Ministers as well as member states (Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain) and societal actors (businesses and environmental NGOs). Additional chapters analyse the EU as a global actor and the climate change policies of America and China and how they have responded to the EU’s ambitions.

Jack Hayward (ed) Leaderless Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

The argument that the European Community/Union was always intended to be a leaderless, mainly confederal association member states has been confirmed since publication by the Lisbon Treaty’s multiplication of would-be leaders and the inability to agree on common action to deal with the major financial and migration problems confronting the EU. Consensus is harder to achieve and intractable power struggles predominate.