Journal of

Global Analysis

Ingeborg Tommel
The European Union – what it is and how it works
England, Palgrave Macmillan, 1st edn, 2014, ISBN 978-1-137-42753-3 hardback; ISBN 978-1-
137-42752-6 paperback); xv+364pp.

When The European Union – what it is and how it works was published in late 2014, Ingeborg
Tommel could hardly guess how helpful and updated this book could be in the current times
when the European Union is facing two pressing issues: the economic default of Greece and
the migration massive flows from the Mediterranean and the Balkans. We also assume that
the author didn’t have a crystal ball that could predict the leading role that Germany would
assure in both situations. Tommel is professor emeritus in International Politics and Jean
Monnet Chair in European Politics at the University of Osnabrück. However, the book doesn’t
show any particular tendency of the influence of the places she lived or worked in (also
Berlin, the Netherlands, Canada and Egypt) to explore EU’s functioning or mission.
The European Union – what it is and how it works is exactly what we can guess from the title:
an academic handbook from a professor that has been devoting her life teaching and
researching on the political system of the EU and European governance. In 2009, Tommel
published (with Amy Verdun) the book “Innovative Governance in the European Union: the
Politics of Multilevel Policymaking” (Lynne Rienner 2009) and we can easily find several
articles online, as the one wrote in May 29, 2013 to E-International Relations called “The EU’s
New Neighbourhood Policy: An Appropriate Response to the Arab Spring?”. In fact, what we
can find in this book is the author’s assessment on how the EU’s functioning affects the lives
of Europeans (even if they don’t perceived it in their daily routines) explaining in detail EU’s
nature, evolution, structure and decision making procedures. But we can ask: are these topics
new, especially if we recall that this is a “European Union series” publication? What is
distinctive in this book? The author clarifies in the preface: «Despite a wide variety of
valuable book on the subject, I felt that something was missing. I was looking for a book that
could give a lean description of the EU as an emerging political order beyond the nation state.
I wanted a book that highlights the basic features of the EU’s institutional structure and the
‘why’ of this apparently unusual structure. I needed a book that describes the Union’s
institutions not just one by one, but also in their complex interactions. I also required a book
that places European integration in a consistent theoretical framework, without reverting to
the grand theories of international relations, or to those capturing the nation state. The
present book is a response to what I felt was missing. Of course it doesn’t satisfy all my
aspirations. Nevertheless, I hope readers will view this book as a missing link in the crowd of
textbooks on the EU». (2014: x)
The book The European Union – what it is and how it works succeeds not only as a potential
selfish attempt of the author to find a “missing link” but is particular interesting in the critical
analysis of dilemmas (on cooperation and consensus but also conflict and skepticism) and
discrepancies highlighted in page 3 and developed through the book (between an apparently
‘weak’ institutional structure and the far-reaching impact of European decisions and actions;
between a highly fragmented process of decision-making and the centralizing impact of
decisions; between powerful individual actors and institutions and a collective weakness in
exercising power; and between ‘grand designs’ for focused reform and the Union’s piecemeal
Book Review

institutional evolution without a clear vision of its final shape, the so called ‘finalité’). The
paradoxes from which the author insists in starting he book proves how the EU is such a sui
generis organization and leads the path in the next chapters to several prospects on
democratic legitimacy on the future.
Tommel1 divides her book in 14 chapters but we could easily split it into three main parts:
the first one is dedicated to the historical background of the EU project and includes the
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Global Analysis

Introduction (“The Political System of the EU) and chapters 2 (“Theorizing European
Integration and the Union as a Political System”), 3 (“Building the European Union:
Supranational Dynamics and Intergovernmental Configurations”) and 4 (“Consolidating the
European Union: Enlargement, Deepening Integration and Crisis Management”). The second
part relates with institutional procedures and mechanisms. It comprises chapters 5 (“The
Core Institutional Structure”), 6 (“Decision-Making: Cooperation and Conflict among the Core
Institutions”), 7 (“Decision-Making and Consensus-Building within the Core Institutions”) and
8 (“Expanding and Diversifying the Core Institutional Structure”). Finally, a third part is
dedicated to a critical analysis on the EU’s multidimensional governance (both in terms of
efficiency and legitimacy) concluding on an assessment of the EU’s nature in action. This part
then comprises the last five chapters of the book: 9 (“Promoting Integration: Policy-making
and Governance”), 10 (“Building a Multi-Level System”), 11 (“Building a Multi-Actor System”),
12 (“Assessing the European Union: Efficiency and Effectiveness”), 13 (“The Democratic
Legitimacy of the EU”) and 14 (“Conclusions: The Nature of the European Union”). This last
division is indeed the most interesting, as the author’s arguments recall us the multiple
labelling debates that academia has been proceeding in the last years - the ‘ethical power
europe’ of Lisbeth Aggestam or Weiler; the ‘civilian power’ of François Duchene, Helen
Sjursen, Bjorn Hettne and Fredrik Soderbaum; the ‘normative power’ of Ian Manners – to try
to define the “unidentified political object” that Delors addressed in 1985 in a speech in the
Luxembourg.
While the author searches for the EU’s raison d’être, it’s worth reading how she
acknowledges how post national forms of democracy should be explored to overcome a
structural deficit of citizen’s representation (2014: 292-303). In fact, the book offers critical
insights about EU security governance and actorness with a solid and up-to-date literature
review on these subjects.
However, the biggest challenge remains, after almost 370 pages: what is the European Union
and how it works? The author’s options are clearly more academic than policy oriented,
leaving to students and general audience enough guidance for an individual analysis on the
topic. In fact, it is towards “those who, until now, have been largely excluded from the
project of European integration” (2014:335) that the author addresses the higher
expectations of progress in the way ahead.
The European Union – what it is and how it works is undoubtedly a worth reader, either for
beginners or experts who are willing both to learn “the basics” and to explore further
research on this area in a crucial time for Europe and for the Europeans to keep engaged with
the European project.

Ana Isabel XAVIER

Assistant Professor in Nova University of Lisbon and Research Fellow at IPRI- Portuguese
Institute of International Relations
Xavier.anaisabel@gmail.com
Book Review

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