Transition to Europe. How the continent became a union

Luuk van Middelaar is a Dutch historian and political philosopher who, from 2010 to 2014, was the closest aide to Herman van Rompuy, the first permanent President of the European Council. In his book "Transition to Europe", he analyzes in detail the history of the formation and internal organization of the European Union, from the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) to the current state of the EU. Middelaar's original conception views the EU as an entity consisting of three "spheres": external (the totality of all European states), internal ("community Europe" with common institutions provided for in the agreement) and intermediate (relations between member states of the community). In 2012, the book "Transition to Europe" received the honorary European Book Prize. The Ukrainian translation of the book is made from the authorized English edition of 2013.