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Successful Regional Integration In The European Union Through Vision And Planning, Joshua Berliner

Dissertations and Theses

The community of Europe today is at a crossroads. Recent pressures, many of them external, are severely testing the integrity of the European Union, as well as the long-standing regional cooperation. Widespread inconsistencies in national policies across member states, especially with regards to economic culture and fiscal policy, have presented the EU with an existential crisis. My hypothesis is that successful regional integration in Europe, however gradual, was not a spontaneous reaction to acute external pressures. Instead, I argue that successful regional integration was the result of a shared vision and careful planning by policy makers and negotiators, who never …