Edited by Sybille Münch, Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for Diversity, Democracy and Inclusion in Education, Hildesheim University and Hubert Heinelt, Professor for Public Administration, Public Policy and Urban Research, Institute for Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

• Contents:PART I THE NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT THEMULTIANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK2021–2027 AND THEIR CONTEXT1 The EU at a crossroads. Negotiations about theMultiannual Financial Framework 2021–2027:Introduction to the book 2Hubert Heinelt and Sybille Münch2 The negotiations about the Multiannual FinancialFramework 2021–2027: What happened when with what result? 30Peter Becker3 A decisive moment of governing: budgeting (in) the time of crisis 56Marlon Barbehön4 The Euro crisis: the battle of ideas how to address it– andits effects on European integration 75Clément Fontan and Antoine de CabanesPART II POLICY CHANGES5 The CAP post-2020 reform and the EU budget process 96Peter H. Feindt, Pascal Grohmann and Astrid Häger6 The 2021 reform of EU cohesion policy in context of thenegotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework 123Wolfgang Petzold7 Sustainabilising Europe in times of crisis? Themeta-policy role of the European Green Deal in thecontext of the COVID-19 pandemic and the negotiationson the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework 145Basil Bornemann8 The Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021–2027 andthe struggle over ideas about migration and border management 173Sybille Münch9 EU research, technological development and innovation policy 203Matthias Weber, Peter Biegelbauer, Michael Dinges andKatja LamprechtPART III DO WE HAVE TO RECONSIDER THEORIESOF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION?10 Consensus politics and EU disequilibrium: the GermanCouncil Presidency 2021 and the rule of law mechanism 234Uwe Puetter11 What do the negotiations about the MultiannualFinancial Framework 2021–2027 mean for theories ofEuropean integration? Reflections from an actor-centredconstructivist perspective 252Sabine SauruggerIndex

‘Budget negotiations are often considered to be mostly rational and interest-based processes. Negotiations about the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) in particular tend to be analysed as classical domains of fierce intergovernmental bargaining between EU member states. This edited volume goes beyond the rationalist assumptions and zooms onto the “struggle over ideas”. By introducing an interpretive approach to the study of policymaking, this excellent collection makes an essential contribution to research on EU integration. With its focus on meaning as manifest in persuasion and justification, the book provides insights into the politicization and polarization encountered in different policy areas at a point in time, when the EU was, once again, considered to be “at a crossroads”.’