It is ironic that two European scholars decided, almost at the same time, to reconsider the classic question of the formation of ‘the Burgundian State’. Even if Robert Stein did not mention the ideological inspirations for his work, the impact of the European construction arises in a key sentence about composite monarchies, a concept that lies at the heart of this book: ‘It is impossible to understand its character [i.e. of the Burgundian Union] by looking only at the centre, or at one of the individual parts, like Flanders, for instance, just as it is impossible to grasp the character of the European Union by looking only at Brussels or Portugal or Denmark.’ (‘Het is onmogelijk de eigenheid van de Bourgondische unie te begrijpen door uitsluitend naar het centrum te kijken, of naar een van de individuele delen, zoals het onmogelijk is het karakter van de Europese unie te doorgronden door alleen naar Brussel, of naar bijvoorbeeld Portugal of Denemarken te kijken’) (p.19; p.13 in the English translation). This article is part of the discussion forum 'Constructing and Deconstructing the ‘State’: the Case of the Low Countries'.