Introduction

The European Union (EU) is an elaborate beast, but at its most basic it is a political economy phenomenon. This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book explores particular facets of the EU's economic order from a selection of critical political economy perspectives. It acknowledges the importance of the ‘comparative capitalism’ (CC) research tradition as a wellspring for important critical work. The book focuses on those post-crisis reforms, which have operationalised a method of budgetary surveillance to normalise particular versions of economic rectitude across the member states. It shows how a particular line of reasoning within critical political economy arrives at the conclusion that there must be a trade-off between an open immigration regime (such as freedom of movement in the EU) on the one hand and the maintenance of welfare and labour rights on the other.