Cardwell, P. J.

City Research Online

              City, University of London Institutional RepositoryCitation: Cardwell, P. J. ORCID: 0000-0002-7485-3474 (2018). Book Review: Governance and Security Issues of the European Union. Challenges Ahead, by Jaap de Zwaan, Martijn Lak, Abiola Makinwa and Piet Willems. (Vienna: Springer, 2016). Common Market Law Review, 55(1), pp. 309-310. This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link:  https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/26639/Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to.Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research OnlineCity Research Online:            http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/            publications@city.ac.uk		Jaap	de	Zwaan,	Martijn	Lak,	Abiola	Makinwa	and	Piet	Willems	(Eds.),	Governance	and	Security	Issues	of	the	European	Union.	Challenges	Ahead.	Vienna:	Springer,	2016.	353	pages.	ISBN	978-94-6265-143-2.	EUR	148.39.		There	is	no	shortage	of	problems	and	challenges	to	dissect	and	discuss	in	relation	to	the	European	Union’s	governance	and	security.	Similarly,	there	is	no	lack	of	scholarly	literature	uncovering	and	analysing	these	problems	and	challenges	and	suggesting	ways	for	the	process	of	European	integration	to	progress.	This	new	collection	of	17	chapters	takes	a	broad	tour	through	some	of	the	familiar	and	less	familiar	territory	of	EU	governance.		 The	editors	form	part	of	an	interdisciplinary	research	group	at	the	Hague	University	of	Applied	Sciences,	and	many	of	the	contributors	are	early	career	scholars	pursuing	individual	programmes	of	research.	The	ambition	of	the	book	is	admirable	for	its	attempt	to	include	scholars	from	many	different	backgrounds	and	disciplines.	They	look	beyond	law	and	political	science	to	also	incorporate	scholars	of	environmental	science	and	history,	as	well	as	contributions	from	practitioners.	The	collection	is	described	as	a	‘bundle’	of	articles	in	the	introduction.	As	such,	it	does	not	follow	the	expected	template	of	an	edited	collection	that	examines	a	theme	according	to	a	specific	research	agenda,	theoretical	or	methodological	model.	This,	along	with	the	rather	unspecific	term	‘issues’	in	the	title	of	the	collection	and	lack	of	a	substantive	introductory	chapter	to	thread	the	contributions	together,	means	that	the	book	lacks	a	coherent	frame.	Most	of	the	chapters	do	not	connect	to	the	reference	to	‘challenges	ahead’	in	the	book’s	subtitle.	It	is	thus	best	viewed	as	a	number	of	self-standing	chapters	that	are	all	purported	to	link	in	some	way	to	notions	of	‘security’	in	its	widest	sense.	Unfortunately,	‘security’	is	not	defined	or	described	in	the	introduction	and	simply	points	to	current	challenges	facing	Europe	(including	the	prolonged	economic	crisis,	instability	in	the	EU	neighbourhood,	terrorist	attacks,	migration	and	so	on).	Furthermore,	the	connection	between	‘security’	and	the	content	of	some	of	the	chapters	is	not	evident	given	the	emphasis	the	book	places	on	the	contemporary	nature	of	EU	governance.	This	is	particularly	the	case	in	the	first	of	the	book’s	four	parts.	Here,	rather	than	set	the	scene	by	investigating	the	dimensions	of	‘security’	the	collection	states	it	wishes	to	address,	it	has	two	chapters	that	look	back	to	the	early	stages	of	integration	and	Schuman’s	personal	history.	Then	follows	a	chapter	devoted	to	an	examination	of	the	Better	Regulation	agenda.	Although	these	topics	are	interesting,	with	so	little	connecting	the	contributions	together,	it	might	have	worked	better	to	avoid	trying	to	shoehorn	them	together,	even	though	they	have	their	individual	merits	as	contributions	to	a	general	understanding	of	what	the	EU	is	and	how	it	got	there.		 Despite	these	shortcomings	in	the	execution	of	the	project	as	a	whole,	the	individual	chapters	are	generally	well-researched.	Many	contain	interesting	and	original	insights	into	a	diverse	set	of	fields.	The	reader	might	therefore	find	it	helpful	to	avoid	seeking	the	‘security’	dimension	and	take	the	chapters	as	stand-alone	pieces	of	scholarship.	In	the	section	on	institutional	aspects,	Lo	Bianco’s	chapter	on	informal	decision-making	is	insightful	and	neatly	addresses	some	of	the	assumptions	about	the	contemporary	legislative	process.		The	spotlight	on	regulation	is	continued	with	Erdemoglu’s	contribution	on	the	Privacy	Regulation,	which	adopts	a	law	and	economic	approach	to	a	rather	technical	area,	but	which	does	result	in	suggestions	to	future	regulation	and	hence	addressing	the	promise	to	look	at	‘challenges	ahead’.	Part	III	on	‘policy	domains’	contains	a	very	diverse	set	of	four	chapters	covering	economic	governance,	migration	burden-sharing,	energy	policy	and	the	EU2020	strategy.	All	are	concise	summaries	of	significant	areas	of	EU	policy-making,	with	an	eye	on	identifying	and	addressing	challenges	but	with	very	limited	relationship	with	either	security	or	governance.		 The	two	latter	sections,	on	European	Criminal	Law	and	External	Relations	respectively,	sit	rather	better	together	as	examples	of	‘mini’	collections	on		defined	themes.	It	might	have	been	preferably	for	the	three	chapters	in	each	section	to	form	part	of	a	special	issue	section	in	a	journal.	This	is	because	they	discuss	significant,	but	sometimes	overlooked	matters	(for	example	in	Koppe’s	chapter	on	EU	policy	on	natural	resources).	The	three	chapters	on	European	Criminal	Law	have	a	welcome	focus	on	financial	crime,	including	money	laundering	and	corruption:	whilst	their	focus	is	on	the	internal	aspects	of	EU	governance,	there	is	a	good	combination	of	practical	policy	insights	with	thoughts	on	how	to	best	adapt	EU	law.	In	the	section	on	External	Relations,	Pieper	and	Hintzen’s	contributions	take	us	through	contemporary	EU	foreign	policy	in	the	light	of	the	EU’s	Global	Strategy.	Again,	whilst	these	fit	together	rather	well,	the	reader	is	left	to	wonder	how	they	connect	to	the	other	contributions	in	the	book.		 In	short,	although	it	is	difficult	to	see	how	the	book	as	a	whole	lives	up	to	its	name,	the	individual	chapters	stand	as	useful	contributions	to	the	various	sub-fields	of	EU	law	and	governance	scholarship.	Given	the	emphasis	on	contributions	from	scholars	at	a	relatively	early	stage	of	their	careers,	the	chapters	of	the	book	are	hopefully	an	indication	of	their	potential	and	what	we	might	expect	from	them	in	the	future.		Paul	James	Cardwell	University	of	Strathclyde,	Glasgow		 		 	

Book Review: Governance and Security Issues of the European Union. Challenges Ahead, by Jaap de Zwaan, Martijn Lak, Abiola Makinwa and Piet Willems. (Vienna: Springer, 2016)

Cardwell, Paul James

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https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/26639/1/Cardwell%20de%20Zwaan%20et%20al%20review%20CMLR%20AAM.pdf

Book Review: Governance and Security Issues of the European Union. Challenges Ahead, by Jaap de Zwaan, Martijn Lak, Abiola Makinwa and Piet Willems. (Vienna: Springer, 2016)

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