ABSTRACT
As the subject European Political Economy is inserted into this book in the tradition of International Political Economy, the analysis of the process of European integration cannot be separated from the analysis of the broader context within which it takes place. This final chapter, therefore, overcomes the borders of the European Union to move to a higher level of analysis in which the EU, its policies, its institutions and decision-making procedures are seen as only a part of a whole: the global political economy. In turn, this cannot be disentangled from addressing the many issues stemming from the question of globalisation, its definition and its main characteristics. It is here the place to see how globalisation is related to the process of European integration, and how the latter is similar or different from the process of regionalisation taking place in other areas of the world, and to investigate over the meaning of regionalisation in relation to both globalisation and the nation state.
