The Crisis of the European Union

Andreas Grimmel is Research Associate and Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Hamburg and at the Institute for European Integration, Europa-Kolleg in Hamburg, Germany.

Introduction: The Many Challenges of the European Union


Part I: Perspectives on a Troubled Project

1. Understanding European Union Governance: Political Challenges of the Integration Project


2. Europe’s Unfinished Community of Law: Legal Challenges of the Integration Project

3.The Design of the EMU at the Heart of the EU's Crisis? Economic Challenges of the Integration Project

4. Uneven Development, Partial Europeanization, and Nationalist Retreat: Societal Challenges of the Integration Project

Part II: The Many Faces of the European Crisis

5. The Hegemony of Disorder: The Persistence of Financial Turmoil in the EU

6. Nationalism, Populism and Re-birth of Statehood in Europe

7. Independence and Separatist Movements: Europe between Integration and Disintegration

8. Is the Migration Crisis a Solidarity Crisis?

9. A Europe of Dropouts? The Brexit and the Question of European Solidarity

10. Social Europe still Missing? Flaws of the Spillover Process as the Motor of Integration

Part III: How to Improve the EU’s Problem-Solving Capacities

11. When There Are No Winners, Only Losers: The European Crisis and the Interest Paradigm


12. Intergovernmental Method, Community Method, and Open Method of Coordination: The Resilience, Efficiency and Legitimacy of the EU’s Modes of Governance

13. Segmentation, Differentiation and the Aims of European Integration

14. Democratic Innovations Beyond the State


15. The EU’s Model of Regional Integration in a Functionally Differentiated World Society

Epilogue: There’s Life in the Old Dog Yet! Challenges as Catalyst for European Integration