How the EU Really Works

This fully updated textbook provides a concise yet comprehensive textbook on the EU’s polity and politics, offering an ideal balance between its history, institutions and decision-making processes, while drawing connections between these dimensions throughout.

“The new edition of this excellent textbook is timely and valuable. Against the background of a quickly shifting context, Brack and Costa manage to communicate the complexities of the European Union in an accessible, succinct and yet encompassing manner. Highly recommended as the go-to textbook on all aspects of EU governance!”

Thomas Christiansen , Professor, Luiss University, Rome, Italy

“This impressive book tells it like is, with all the EU’s paradoxes eloquently described, along with the accomplishments and shortcomings of European integration, the challenges for democracy and legitimacy, and the many crises, not the least of which is the rise of populist Euroskepticism. A must read for anyone who wants to know how the EU really works.”

Vivien A. Schmidt , Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Boston University, USA

Nathalie Brack is Associate Professor of Political Science at CEVIPOL, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Olivier Costa is Research Professor at the CNRS, CEVIPOF, Sciences Po, France.