Core-periphery Relations in the European Union: The Politics of Differentiated Integration in the European Political Economy

Successive Enlargements to the European Union membership have transformed it into an economically, politically and culturally heterogeneous body with distinct vulnerabilities in its multi-level governance.

This book analyses core-periphery relations to highlight the growing cleavage, and potential conflict, between the core and peripheral member-states of the Union in the face of the devastating consequences of Eurozone crisis. Taking a comparative and theoretical approach and using a variety of case studies, it examines how the crisis has both exacerbated tensions in centre-periphery relations within and outside the Eurozone, and how the European Union’s economic and political status is declining globally.

This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of European Union studies, European integration, political economy, public policy, and comparative politics.

José M. Magone is Professor of Regional and Global Governance at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Brigid Laffan is Director and Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, and Director of the Global Governance Programme, European University Institute (EUI), Florence.

Christian Schweiger is Senior Lecturer in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University.