Europe's Future
Decoupling and Reforming

The EU's crises have triggered a division between 'sovereignist' and 'Europeanist' forces. Fabbrini proposes a way for dealing with it.

Sergio Fabbrini (Author)

9781108484510, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 March 2019

180 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.4 cm, 0.4 kg

'In this tour de force, Fabbrini boldly demonstrates how and why the EU's current institutional architecture, challenged by the euro and migration crises combined with the rise of nationalism and populism, can only be resolved by creating two unions, the economic one wide, for the Single Market, the political one deep, around the Euro area.' Vivien A. Schmidt, Boston University

Sergio Fabbrini proposes a way out of the EU's crises, which have triggered an unprecedented cleavage between 'sovereignist' and 'Europeanist' forces. The intergovernmental governance of the multiple crises of the past decade has led to a division on the very rationale of Europe's integration project. Sovereignism (the expression of nationalistic and populist forces) has demanded more decision-making autonomy for the EU member states, although Europeanism has struggled to make an effective case against this challenge. Fabbrini proposes a new perspective to release the EU from this predicament, involving the decoupling and reforming of the EU: on the one hand, the economic community of the single market (consisting of the current member states of the EU and of others interested in joining or re-joining it); and on the other, the political union (largely based on the eurozone reformed according to an original model of the federal union).

Introduction: multiple crises and European governance
1. Supranational and intergovernmental governance
2. Intergovernmental governance and its implications
3. Sovereignist challenges and the political union
4. From Statist to federal political union
5. The future of Europe as constitutional decoupling.

Subject Areas: EU & European institutions [JPSN2], Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Nationalism [JPFN], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Social theory [JHBA]