This best-selling guide to the workings of the European Union provides comprehensive coverage of * The development of the Union. * How it works: the institutions, the mechanisms. * Every area of EU competence from agriculture to workers' rights * The effects of the single market and the single currency. * The prospects for closer political integration. This Guide to the European Union is well-established as the clearest and most comprehensive guide to how the EU operates. This new edition brings you up to date at a crucial stage following the replacement of the mark, franc, lira, peseta and seven other currencies by the euro and at a time when Britain edges closer to putting euro zone membership to the vote in a referendum.