This handbook provides a comprehensive, state of the art account of politics of the European Union.

It pays particular attention to the profound challenges the EU faces which transform the foundation of its politics, such as internal (Brexit, democratic backsliding, growing nationalism and populism, and new protectionism) and external (the return of great-power competition, the war in Ukraine, reconfigurations of power, and the weakening of multilateral institutions reshaping the EU’s security) realities. The handbook examines how conflicts over values, authority, and governance now permeate the European project and how the EU’s political order adapts to crisis and contestation. With this, it analyses and systematically summarizes the institutional dynamics between integration and autonomy, patterns of participation, contestation and identity, and the EU’s external relations in a fragile world order, revealing core aspects and characteristics of EU politics.

The Routledge Handbook of European Union Politics is a uniquely comprehensive and core reference for all scholars, students and readers seeking to understand key, overarching trends in contemporary EU politics and the way it has evolved historically.