This is the first book to look at the European Union and single currency from the perspective of member states. It offers a systematic critique of the project from the viewpoint of labour and employment. Written by political economists, a historian and lawyer, an economic journalist and a trade-union leader for both an academic and general audience, it is interdisciplinary and synthetic in approach. In seeking to explain the crisis that has beset Europe as a result of Economic and Monetary Union, it is likely to become the standard alternative text to the conventional wisdom on European integration.