Introduction

European integration is an unprecedented and unparalleled success. Reform was primarily driven by the need to address Central and East European upheaval. The collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s forced EU officials and heads of state to consider the prospects of extending European integration to the entire continent much earlier than expected. The European sovereign debt crisis that started by the end of 2008 has since led to the negotiation of new texts (the Stability and Growth Pact, the Twopack, the Sixpack) and to the Fiscal Compact – formally, the treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. The Treaty of Lisbon thus remains the main frame of the EU political system. Euroscepticism can come from the left and from the right and may alternatively be directed towards the European project, its institutions, its policies or its actors. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.