In recent years the European Union's membership has increased from 15 to 25 countries, it has adopted the Lisbon strategy for achieving greater economic competitiveness, taken steps towards a more purposive common foreign and defence policy, and significantly increased its efforts to deal with challenges to internal security. The new edition of this highly successful textbook brings the reader up-to-date with the range of core policy challenges facing the European Union and the ways in which they are being addressed. It includes a new chapter which lays out the primary questions of the book against the background of new research and a new chapter on employment policy which covers the major developments in this area.