The European Council

"Anyone interested in learning more about how Europe functions should read Jan Werts' fascinating book... An EU journalist par excellence, no-one is better qualified to write on this subject than Werts. No-one has been as close to quite so many European Council meetings... his focus is always on the issues of substance, often with remarkable results."
Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

In this essential new book veteran EU media correspondent Jan Werts explains how the European Council, from modest origins in occasional summits, has become the strategic driving force of the European Union. He casts light on how it operates, its role vis a vis the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, and how its role will further change under the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular with the intended appointment of a full-time President.

JAN WERTS combines the skills of a journalist - having personally reported the great majority of European Council meetings since the 1970s - with the disciplines of an academic, having written the first doctoral dissertation on the European Council. He has written this book to assist both those studying the EU from an academic perspective and also those working at a practical level within the institutions who need to understand this often obscure body.

DETAILED CONTENTS

Foreword, by Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Chapter 1. The origins of the European Council

Chapter 2. The functioning of the European Council in the institutional framework of the Union

Chapter 3. The most important successes and failures of the European Council

Chapter 4. The role of the European Council in a Union of 27+ States

Chapter 5. Conclusion and policy recommendations: the European Council beyond the 2009 horizon

Annexes

Bibliography

Index
Approx. 280 Pages

  • ISBN: 978-0-9556202-1-8
  • Publisher: John Harper Publishing
  • Author: Jan Werts
  • Language: English

Price: 27.00 €

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