Conclusion: Looking from the Outside In ≠ Looking from the Inside Out

Abstract

An odd beast in many ways, the European Union (EU) has no shortage of paradoxes. It espouses democracy as the highest value, but functions as a technocratic bureaucracy. It wants to bring Europeans closer together, but, in the years since the Eurocrisis, has driven them further apart. It wants to bring wealth to Europeans, but most think it is taking wealth away from them. It holds that all member states are equal, but in practice, as Kuus shows in this book, some are more equal than others. Recently a curious new paradox has joined the mix: those who are in, want to get out and those who are out, want to get in. As Ukrainians called a revolution under the banner of the EU, many people in the established member states would prefer to say goodbye to the EU sooner rather than later.