Promoting Unity, Preserving Diversity?: Member-State Institutions and European Integration

As the European Union continues to evolve and as European integration proceeds, it has become increasingly difficult to meet two goals fundamental to the EU: promoting European unity while preserving member state diversity. To highlight this tension, Promoting Unity, Preserving Diversity? examines the ways in which six of the member state parliaments are connected, via particular legislative bodies called European Affairs Committees (EACs) to the EU legislative process. EACs vary greatly from one member state to another with regard to the level of input legislators have in setting national positions on proposed EU legislation. Gates skillfully suggests that variation in EAC competencies is significant, not only because EACs demonstrate the intractability of each member state’s particular attributes, but also because they represent a little explored facet of the EU’s democratic failings.