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To what extent is business activity governed at a European scale? Since the advent of the recent economic crisis, the EU's choices about the euro, debt ratios and interest rates have caught the headlines and highlighted the importance of EU decision-making arenas. However, these macro-economic events actually tell us only part of the story about the extent to which business activity is now governed at a European scale. Based upon original research on four manufactured or processed goods industries (cars, wine, pharmaceuticals and aquaculture), and driven by theory that is constructivist, institutionalist and sociological, this book sets out to analyse just what Europe governs, by whom and why. In doing so, it reveals three recurrent features of the European government of industries: its omnipresence, its incompleteness and its de-politicization. The authors show that the many gaps in the EU's mode of governing industries stem from struggles over economic doctrine as well as the continued unwillingness of many actors to accord the EU a legitimacy to act politically in the name of industrial government.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies and Political Economy as well as those studying Political Science, Economics, Sociology and Business Studies.

Passer du gouvernement à la gouvernance, est-ce ouvrir la porte à plus de délibération, c'est-à-dire une logique d'action fondée sur l'argumentation publique? Cette manière d'opérer et de légitimer des décisions se substitue-t-elle aux procédures préexistantes ou forme-t-elle des'instances'supplémentaires qui compliquent l'action publique? Ces contributions identifient les conditions qui encouragent ou découragent l'émergence de la délibération comme logique d'action sociétale et gouvernementale.

The European Commission is an organization which has come to fascinate or repulse a range of national politicians, journalists and social scientists. In contrast to the prevailing image of the Commission as a'bureaucrat's paradise', however, and by using the results of original research, this book deliberately sets out to investigate this organization's relationship to politics. It does so first by developing a variety of case-studies (health, development aid, preparations for Eastern enlargement, etc.) as a means of studying the relationships, networks and interdependencies which link commissioners and Commission officials to national politicians, civil servants and interest groups. Second, by looking in detail at how the Commission publicizes its work, notably through producing public information and liaising with the media, fresh light is shone upon the complex question of the Commission's legitimacy. Politics and the European Commission provides a framework for generating new information about, and interpretations of, the power struggles at the heart of the EU.