Praise for the fi rst edition of The European Union: A Very Short Introduction ‘John Pinder has for years been recognized and respected as an outstanding authority on European Community, now European Union affairs. This short, detailed yet splendidly readable book … is a must for anyone seeking to understand the European Union, its origins, development, and possible future.’ Michael Palliser ‘John Pinder writes straightforwardly and beautifully clearly … He has done an extraordinary job of compressing the history and the book is absolutely up to date.’ Helen Wallace, Sussex European Institute ‘John Pinder is in a class of his own. He brings clarity and vision to what is too often complicated and obscure. He causes both friend and foe to wonder what a reformed and strengthened Union could achieve for all Europe and for the wider world.’ Andrew Duff, MEP, Constitutional Affairs Spokesman, European Liberal Democrats ‘… indispensable not only for beginners but for all interested in European issues. Pithy, lucid and accessible it covers recent history, institutions, and policies, as well as future developments.’ Rt. Hon. Giles Radice, MP ‘it not only lives up to but exceeds the promise of its title. This is in fact “The European Union – A Very Short, Useful and Straightforward Guide”.’ Independent on Sunday ‘invaluable’ William Keegan, Observer VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY THE HISTORY OF John Parker and Richard Rathbone ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin AMERICAN POLITICAL ATHEISM Julian Baggini PARTIES AND ELECTIONS AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick L. Sandy Maisel BARTHES Jonathan Culler THE AMERICAN BESTSELLERS John Sutherland PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones THE BIBLE John Riches ANARCHISM Colin Ward THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw BRITISH POLITICS ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Anthony Wright Julia Annas BUDDHA Michael Carrithers ANCIENT WARFARE BUDDHISM Damien Keown Harry Sidebottom BUDDHIST ETHICS ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman Damien Keown THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE CAPITALISM James Fulcher John Blair THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CHAOS Leonard Smith ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller CHOICE THEORY ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Michael Allingham ARCHITECTURE CHRISTIAN ART Andrew Ballantyne Beth Williamson ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead ART HISTORY Dana Arnold CLASSICS Mary Beard and ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland John Henderson CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Helen Morales EMOTION Dylan Evans CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard EMPIRE Stephen Howe THE COLD WAR ENGELS Terrell Carver Robert McMahon ETHICS Simon Blackburn CONSCIOUSNESS THE EUROPEAN UNION Susan Blackmore John Pinder and Simon Usherwood CONTEMPORARY ART EVOLUTION Julian Stallabrass Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY EXISTENTIALISM Simon Critchley Thomas Flynn COSMOLOGY Peter Coles FASCISM Kevin Passmore THE CRUSADES FEMINISM Margaret Walters Christopher Tyerman THE FIRST WORLD WAR CRYPTOGRAPHY Michael Howard Fred Piper and Sean Murphy FOSSILS Keith Thomson DADA AND SURREALISM FOUCAULT Gary Gutting David Hopkins THE FRENCH REVOLUTION DARWIN Jonathan Howard William Doyle THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS FREE WILL Thomas Pink Timothy Lim FREUD Anthony Storr DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick FUNDAMENTALISM DESCARTES Tom Sorell Malise Ruthven DESIGN John Heskett GALILEO Stillman Drake DINOSAURS David Norman GAME THEORY DOCUMENTARY FILM Ken Binmore Patricia Aufderheide GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh DREAMING J. Allan Hobson GLOBAL CATASTROPHES DRUGS Leslie Iversen Bill McGuire THE EARTH Martin Redfern GLOBALIZATION ECONOMICS Manfred Steger Partha Dasgupta GLOBAL WARMING EGYPTIAN MYTH Mark Maslin Geraldine Pinch THE GREAT DEPRESSION EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AND THE NEW DEAL BRITAIN Paul Langford Eric Rauchway HABERMAS MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner James Gordon Finlayson THE MARQUIS DE SADE HEGEL Peter Singer John Phillips HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood MARX Peter Singer HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers HINDUISM Kim Knott MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope HISTORY John H. Arnold MEDIEVAL BRITAIN HOBBES Richard Tuck John Gillingham and HUMAN EVOLUTION Ralph A. Griffiths Bernard Wood MODERN ART David Cottington HUMAN RIGHTS MODERN IRELAND Andrew Clapham Senia Pašeta HUME A. J. Ayer MOLECULES Philip Ball IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden MUSIC Nicholas Cook INDIAN PHILOSOPHY MYTH Robert A. Segal Sue Hamilton NATIONALISM Steven Grosby INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary THE NEW TESTAMENT AS INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE Kyle Keefer MIGRATION Khalid Koser NEWTON Robert Iliffe INTERNATIONAL NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson NINETEENTH-CENTURY ISLAM Malise Ruthven BRITAIN JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves Christopher Harvie JUDAISM Norman Solomon and H. C. G. Matthew JUNG Anthony Stevens NORTHERN IRELAND KABBALAH Joseph Dan Marc Mulholland KAFKA Ritchie Robertson PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close KANT Roger Scruton PAUL E. P. Sanders KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig THE KORAN Michael Cook PHILOSOPHY OF LAW LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews Raymond Wacks LITERARY THEORY PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Jonathan Culler Samir Okasha LOCKE John Dunn PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards LOGIC Graham Priest PLATO Julia Annas POLITICS Kenneth Minogue SCHIZOPHRENIA POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone David Miller SCHOPENHAUER POSTCOLONIALISM Christopher Janaway Robert Young SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer POSTMODERNISM SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt Christopher Butler SOCIAL AND CULTURAL POSTSTRUCTURALISM ANTHROPOLOGY Catherine Belsey John Monaghan and Peter Just PREHISTORY Chris Gosden SOCIALISM Michael Newman PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Catherine Osborne SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PSYCHOLOGY THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Gillian Butler and Freda McManus Helen Graham PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns SPINOZA Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY STUART BRITAIN John Morrill John Polkinghorne TERRORISM RACISM Ali Rattansi Charles Townshend THE RENAISSANCE THEOLOGY David F. Ford Jerry Brotton THE HISTORY OF TIME RENAISSANCE ART Leofranc Holford-Strevens Geraldine A. Johnson TRAGEDY Adrian Poole ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway THE TUDORS John Guy THE ROMAN EMPIRE TWENTIETH-CENTURY Christopher Kelly BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler THE VIKINGS Julian Richards RUSSELL A. C. Grayling WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling RUSSIAN LITERATURE WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Catriona Kelly THE WORLD TRADE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ORGANIZATION S. A. Smith Amrita Narlikar Available soon: EXPRESSIONISM MEMORY Jonathan Foster Katerina Reed-Tsocha MODERN CHINA GALAXIES John Gribbin Rana Mitter GEOGRAPHY John Matthews and NUCLEAR WEAPONS David Herbert Joseph M. Siracusa GERMAN LITERATURE THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion Nicholas Boyle SCIENCE AND RELIGION HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside Thomas Dixon THE MEANING OF LIFE SEXUALITY Terry Eagleton Véronique Mottier For more information visit our website www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ John Pinder and Simon Usherwood The European Union A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York  John Pinder and Simon Usherwood 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First edition published 2001. This edition published 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–923397–7 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire Contents Foreword xi Abbreviations xiii List of boxes xv List of charts xvii List of illustrations xix List of maps xxi 1 What the EU is for 1 2 How the EU was made 9 3 How the EU is governed 36 4 Single market, single currency 65 5 Agriculture, regions, budget: confl icts over who gets what 80 6 Social policy, environmental policy 95 7 ‘An area of freedom, security and justice’ 104 8 A great civilian power … and more, or less? 112 9 The EU and the rest of Europe 127