Europa EU Perspectives: Reform, Renegotiation, Reshaping

Since its inception, the European Community and its successor, the European Union (EU), has undergone significant changes, some of which have proved to be controversial, demonstrating fractious policy differences between those believing in ever closer political and economic union and those who favour only looser trade relations. This series focuses on the EU’s previous and possible future reforms, including significant policy changes in the different policy domains over the past eight decades, the negotiations and renegotiations that have significantly affected and changed the European project, and the reshaping of the EU in the aftermath not only of successive rounds of enlargement but also in terms of crises, from the Empty Chair Crisis of the 1960s to war in Ukraine in the mid-2020s. The series is open to scholars working in contemporary history, political and social sciences, international relations, transatlantic relations, security studies, migration studies, law, and topics with a specific EU policy focus (such as agriculture, competition, EMU, enlargement, environment/climate change, justice and fundamental rights, social policy, etc.). The series aims to comprise monographs and jointly edited collections, which fall into these categories, but they are not expected to be restricted to any of them, and volumes may encompass both regional and country-specific studies in the wider context of the subject area.

Michael J. Geary is Professor of Modern European History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) where he holds the Jean Monnet Chair in History of European Integration. He has held research fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Fulbright Commission, the College of Europe, and the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel. A First Class honours graduate of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, he holds a PhD in History and Civilisation from the European University Institute, Florence. His books include: An Inconvenient Wait: Ireland’s Quest for Membership of the EEC, 1957-73 (Institute of Public Administration, 2009); Enlarging the European Union: The Commission Seeking Influence, 1961-1973 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); and The European Union's Pact on Migration and Asylum: A Fresh Start? (Hart Publishing, forthcoming 2026 – edited by R. Bhandari, M. J. Geary et al.). He is also a longstanding contributor to Routledge’s annual publications, Western Europe and The European Union Encyclopaedia and Directory.