The Franco-german Relationship In The European Union (routledge Research In European Public Policy)

THE FRANCO-GERMAN RELATIONSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION ‘Engine’, ‘motor’, ‘vanguard’, ‘axis’, ‘couple’, ‘pair’, ‘entente’, ‘partnership’: all of these labels applied to their relationship indicate that France and Germany together play a critical—if not dominant—role in the European Union and the European integration process. But little is actually known about the intensity of the two governments’ relationship, nor the extent of their influence on EU policies and decisions. This book illuminates this important bilateral relationship in the EU, showing how its intensity and impact vary significantly across different issues and policy areas. The contributors cover policy sectors ranging from the ‘high political’ issues of economic and monetary union, the EU’s East European enlargement, foreign affairs and defence, to normally more mundane issues of electricity and telecommunications liberalisation, research and technology, agriculture, social affairs and immigration. Collectively, the sectoral analyses reveal an extremely variegated picture of the closeness and intensity of the Franco-German relationship in the EU, and of the two states’ impact and influence on EU policy. Differences in the intensity of the relationship appear to be explicable in terms of the political salience of the issues to each government, and the strength and longevity of the EU’s competences, the level of multilateral interaction in the sector. This suggests that with the deepening of the integration process, the bilateral relationship becomes increasingly institutionalised, crisis-resistant and less vulnerable to changes of government and political leadership in Paris and Bonn. The Franco-German Relationship in the European Union provides much needed empirical data and analysis on a significant topic for which, until now, there has been very little information. It will be a vital resource for political scientists, or anyone concerned with European public policy or EU governance. Douglas Webber is Associate Professor of Political Science at INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration), Fontainebleau, co-author of Hostile Brothers (Clarendon Press, 1990) and has published extensively on German and European politics. ROUTLEDGE RESEARCH IN EUROPEAN PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Jeremy Richardson Nuffield College, University of Oxford 1 THE POLITICS OF CORPORATE TAXATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNIONKnowledge and International Policy AgendasClaudio M.Radaelli 2 THE LARGE FIRM AS A POLITICAL ACTOR IN THE EUDavid Coen 3 PUBLIC POLICY DISASTERS IN WESTERN EUROPEEdited by Pat Gray and Paul‘t Hart 4 THE EU COMMISSION AND EUROPEAN GOVERNANCEAn Institutional AnalysisThomas Christiansen 5 EUROPE’S DIGITAL REVOLUTIONBroadcasting Regulation, The EU and the Nation StateDavid Levy 6 EU SOCIAL POLICY IN THE 1990sTowards a Corporatist Policy CommunityGerda Falkner 7 THE FRANCO-GERMAN RELATIONSHIP IN THE EUEdited by Douglas Webber 8 ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNIONEmployment relations in the new EuropePaul Teague 9 THE EUROPEAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRYMulti-Level Governance, Policy and PoliticsAndrew M.McLaughlin and William A.Maloney Other titles in the European Public Policy series: European Union Jeremy Richardson; Democratic Spain Richard Gillespie, Fernando Rodrigo and Jonathan Story, Regulating Europe Giandomenico Majone; Adjusting to Europe Yves Meny, Pierre Muller and Jean Louis Quermonne; Policy-making in the European Union Laura Cram; Regions in Europe Patrick Le Galès and Christian Lequesne; Green parties and politics in the European union Elizabeth Bomberg, A Common Foreign Policy for Europe? John Peterson and Helene Sjursen; Policy-making, European Integr