The European Union and Member States

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book takes up traditional approaches to political science. In view of the European Union's multi-level and multi-actor polity, it highlights the complex procedural and institutional set-up of nation states preparing and implementing decisions made by the institutions of the European Community (EC). In looking at the emerging and evolving realities of the European polity, the book explores how European institutions and Member States (re-)act and interact in a new institutional and procedural set-up. It offers a mixture of conventional and specific analyses and insights for different groups of readers. For scholars of international relations, European integration and comparative politics, these evolutions involve looking at both the national level, as in comparative studies, and at the European level, as in integration-related approaches.