National Leaders and the Making of Europe: Key Episodes in the Life of the European Council

The average European voter, as the authors of this book admit, would find it difficult to distinguish the European Council from the Council of the European Union or even the (quite unrelated) Council of Europe. Their aim is to explain the story of its gradual development, in which all ten of them have been first-hand witnesses or participants at some stage. Their work has received the blessing of the former President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, who writes in his foreword that their narrative approach to the subject “grasps the essence of the European Council better than would...