Anca Carrington
University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

This new book presents an attempt to sketch the European picture while retaining as much of the specific features as possible. The complex and dynamic nature of the process of economic and monetary integration in Europe makes it an elusive subject for any analysis which aims to be both comprehensive and systematic. For most of the last decade of the 20th century, the attention (and often concern) of both the public and the academic circles focused on two aspects of the European integration project: the introduction of the single currency and the enlargement of the European Union (EU) towards Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The aim is to investigate empirically the introduction of a single currency in the EU and the potential enlargement towards CEE, individually and in their interaction. The author integrates the theoretical developments on regional economic and monetary integration developed before the Euro became reality and use them as the framework for the exploratory analysis.