European Council in the Era of Crises

 O jednej z książek z ostatniego zamówienia zrealizowanego przez naszego wieloletniego brukselskiego dostawcę (Librairie Européenne, bonjour!) wzmiankowałem już wcześniej (Assesment Centre 2021, tutaj), ale w tej przesyłce był jeszcze jeden tytuł zdecydowanie warty oddzielnej prezentacji ze względu na swą wyjątkowość.

Chodzi o książkę autorstwa dr Jana Wertsa poświęconą Radzie Europejskiej, która ukazała się nakładem wydawnictwa John Harper Publishing (tędy do wydawnictwa) w tym roku:

The European Council in the Era of Crises / Jan Werts. London : John Harper Publishing, 2021. xviii, 402 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 9781838089849 [45951]

Książka liczy ponad 400 stron, a szczegółowy spis treści znajduje się poniżej.


Warto wspomnieć, że dr Jan Werts jest autorem jeszcze dwóch książek poświęconych Radzie Europejskiej: pierwsza publikacja, wydana dzięki wsparciu T.M.C. Asser Instituut i opublikowana w roku 1992 przez North-Holland jest, jak czytamy, pierwszą w historii studiów europeistycznych dysertacją doktorską (summa cum laude, VUB, Bruksela) poświęconą historii i analizie funkcjonowania Rady Europejskiej. Praca powstała pod kierownictwem Prof. Marca Meresceau z Uniwersytetu w Gandawie i wieloletniego wykładowcy w Kolegium Europejskim w Natolinie, którego przy okazji pozdrawiamy. Druga książka ukazała się w roku 2008 nakładem wydawnictwa John Harper Publishing i podejmuje kwestię dalszego funkcjonowania Rady Europejskiej w perspektywie rozszerzenia EU o kolejne państwa członkowskie. Prezentowana w tej notatce książka z roku 2021 jest szeroko zakrojoną aktualizacją wcześniejszego wydania - na stronach John Harper Publishing znajduje się o tym informacja, jak również wydawnictwo przpomina, że część materiałów z wydania 2008 nie zostało w nowej edycji uwzględnione. Można zatem przyjąć, że dla badań naukowych nad Radą Europejską najlepiej by było, aby na stole znalazły się wszystkie trzy tytuły Autora, które pojawiły się na rynku ksiegarskim na przestrzeni ostatnich... 29 lat. Czas biegnie szybko (aby nie użyć słów dosadniejszych), na co we wstępie do The European Council in the Era of Crises zwraca uwagę Autor kontrastując dwa zdjęcia zamieszczone we wkładce po stronie 190 (zamieszczam poniżej).

The European Council in the Era of Crises / Jan Werts. London : John Harper Publishing, 2021. xviii, 402 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 9781838089849 [45951]

Contents: Foreword / Herman Van Rompuy -- Preface / Jan Werts

I. The European Council : from 'fireside chat' to centre of European governance -- The European Council in our time -- Since 2010 : more crisis manager than strategic leader -- Preamble to the European Council -- The lifecycle of the European Council -- A 'Provisional European Government'? 

II. Resolver of crises -- Economic government : how the leaders rescued the euro -- Migration, Justice and Home Affairs : areas of permanent crisis -- Brexit : a never-ending drama -- The COVID-19 crisis. 

III. Provider of direction and leadership -- Constitutional strategy -- Foreign policy : a constant but problematic preoccupation -- Financing the EU : complex negotiations on the MFF -- Enlargement : accessions that proved difficult to manage -- Energy and climate policy : a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 -- Appointments -- The single market : a mixed story. 

IV. Architect of its own mistakes and failures -- EMU without a toolbox for crises -- Schengen without reliable closed external borders -- A deadlocked migration and refugee policy -- The EU's foreign policy : a 'mission impossible' -- The Lisbon Strategy that flopped and other flawed projects -- Legitimacy and Brexit -- Some reasons behind the blunders and failures. 

V. Mechanisms and organisational rules -- An overview of the tasks and functions of the European Council -- The legal status of the European Council since the Lisbon Treaty -- The Euro Summit : a new phenomenon -- The crucial agenda-setting of the meetings -- The stepping stones to the conclusions : the summits' centrepiece -- The number, venue, and formats of the summits. 

VI. The course and conduct of the meetings -- The participants : a doubling of the membership -- Decision-making in the European Council -- The foremost decision-makers of the European Council -- Some defining moments for the permanent presidents -- The dominance of France and Germany. 

VII. A strained relationship. The European council and other EU institutions -- The Commission - now subservient, or a more complex picture? -- The shallow relationship with the European Parliament -- The lost key role of the Council of Ministers -- The increasing voice of the Court of Justice (ECJ) -- Birth of a 'Union method' of decision-making : intergovernmentalism plus Community method. 

VIII. Final conclusions -- The unstoppable advance of the European Council in perspective.

Book Jacket: "Jan Werts brings a unique perspective to the European Council. As a journalist, he has reported on the spot from virtually every European Council meeting since 1975, a witness to countless episodes of last-minute arm-twisting and creative compromise. As a scholar, he wrote the first ever doctoral dissertation on the European Council, published in 1992. In 2008 he carried the story forward to the verge of the start of the permanent presidency. In this latest book, against the background of the broad sweep of the history of the European Council, he focuses especially on the sequence of crises that began around the time of his previous book − the Greek debt and broader euro crises, the migration and refugee crisis, Brexit and Covid among them. Jan Werts has interviewed a galaxy of EU insiders whose assessments are extensively quoted in the text. He describes with realism, candour and some sympathy how the leaders, their officials and advisers battled against crises that at times seemed to threaten the European project itself. The institutional development of the European Council since its formal upgrading to an EU institution and the inauguration of the full-time presidency in 2009 is also a major theme. As Werts explains, while the European Council is by definition primarily intergovernmental in character, it has also become firmly embedded in the institutional architecture of the Union and in practice the main driver of EU integration, giving this the legitimacy that only the national leaders can provide."--PUBLISHER'S NOTE.


The European Council / Jan Werts. London : John Harper Publishing, 2008. xix, 271 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 9780955620218 [29509]


Contents: Foreword / Jan Peter Balkenende -- 1. The origins of the European Council -- 2. The functioning of the European Council in the institutional framework of the Union -- 3. The most important successes and failures of the European Council -- 4. The role of the European Council in a Union of 27+ States -- 5. Conclusion and policy recommendations : the European Council beyond the 2009 horizon.

Book Jacket: "In this essential guide - the only recent major study of the European Council - veteran EU media correspondent Jan Werts explains how the European Council, from modest origins in occasional summits, has become the strategic driving force of the European Union. He casts light on how it operates, its role vis a vis the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, and how its role will further change under the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular with the appointment of a full-time President. "--BOOK JACKET.

The European Council / by Jan Werts. Amsterdam ; New York : North-Holland ; New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co., 1992. xxi, 377 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0444892435 [00488]


Contents: I. History and Genesis of the Summit Meetings and of the European Council -- II. Organizational Rules and the Functioning of the European Council -- III. Summit Meetings, the European Council and the Institutional Framework of the Community -- IV. A Survey of the Results and Description of the European Council's Meetings -- V. General Conclusion - The European Council Beyond the 1992 Horizon.

Book Jacket: "This work traces the development of the European decision-making process in the European Community in minute detail, from the Summit Meeting in Paris (1957) to the most recent European Council meeting. Special account is taken of the momentous and at times controversial changes brought about in this process, in particular by the Single European Act. As well as consulting numerous well-known and respected sources on European affairs, the much-travelled author draws on his personal experience as a journalist, presenting new and original conclusions on, for example, the legal status of the European Council's communiques and decisions. The issues touched upon afford much food for thought and are all the more stimulating when seen against the background of the internal market heralded for 1993 and the ever-changing events in Eastern Europe. 

Following a description of the roots of the European Council, the author deals with: 
# the organizational rules and functioning of the European Council, emphasizing the importance of European Political Cooperation 
# the legal nature and form of the European Council and its relations with the Community institutions 
# the meetings and their results # the progress made in decision-making over the years 
# the future of the European Council."--BOOK JACKET.

I jeszcze obiecane zdjęcia z wkładki po stronie 190 z grudnia 1974 roku (Pałac Elizejski, Paryż) oraz października 2020 roku w nowym budynku RE / RUE: wydaje się, że kiedyś wszystko było prostsze...


W najnowszym wydaniu jest też polski akcent, przytaczam fragment ze strony 210:


Książki są dostępne w Bibliotece Kolegium Europejskiego w Natolinie.


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