Over the last decades, competitiveness has become the major driving force of European integration. The EU polity has gained significant influence in reshaping domestic policies and institutions towards a more market oriented path. The supranational constraints on nation states are reinforced by...

The paper argues that both the deepening of the EU, and the concrete form of its eastward expansion is motivated by an overarching project of neoliberal restructuring at the EU level, initiated by the forces of an emerging transnational capitalist class. Whereas the deepening project could be...

Historically, major economic crises have also always been turning points for policy paradigms. Crises were moments for critical choices, when established paradigms collapsed, and alternatives were tested. In this respect, the Great Recession seems to differ. A growing literature tries to grapple...