This book aims at discussing the future steps in the European Integration, which are to be taken after the likely entry into force in 2010 of the Lisbon Treaty. Against the background of the drafting of this new treaty and the constitutional discussion within EU law during the last decades, the author questions whether the treaty and leading EU law theorists have really grasped and addressed the true future challenges of European integration. Instead of always trying to balance supra-nationalism and inter-governmentalism and seeing the EU as less democratic than a nation-state, at least the doctrine, normally more radical than political decision-makers, ought to embrace the most characteristic trait of European integration, namely supra-national decision-making, and discuss its future potential.
In the book, recent changes in EU constitutional law and constitutional theory in general are observed. Leading EU theorists such as Weiler, Majone and Habermas are analysed critically, with a view to their inability to see the EU today for what it really is. Finally, alternative strategies for the next decades, which may make the EU work more efficient and at the same time bridging the gap between the Union and its citizens are discussed.
Joakim Nergelius is Professor of Law at the University of Örebro, Sweden, since 2003. He has previously worked at the European Court of Justice and the EU Committee of Regions.
