Conceptualizing the EU in Traditional Legal Research: How to Deal with Differentiated Integration after Pringle?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Skovmand Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Legal Research ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
The Eu

Integracja w dezintegracji i dezintegracja w integracji: determinanty mechanizmów integracyjnych w Unii Europejskiej

2018 ◽  
pp. 10-37
Author(s):  
Barbara Curyło
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
Integration Mechanisms ◽  
Strategic Issue ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Eu

In the discussion on the future of the EU, the topic of differentiated integration has become a strategic issue, with different variants beginning to appear as modus operandi of the European Union, which has become a subject of controversy among Member States. Significantly, the debate on differentiated integration began to be accompanied by reflections on disintegration. This article attempts to define disintegration on the assumption that it should be defined through the prism of integration, and that such a defining process can not be limited to concluding a one-way contrast between disintegration versus integration and vice versa. This is due to the assumption that the European Union is a dichotomous construct in which integration and disintegration mutually exclude and complement each other. This dichotomy is most evident in the definition of integration and disintegration through the prism of Europeanisation top-down and bottom-up processes that generate, reveal, visualize, stimulate integration mechanisms what allows to diagnose their determinants.

Ever Looser Union?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig ◽  
Thomas Winzen
Keyword(s):  
Self Determination ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Core State ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Members ◽  
Treaty Negotiations ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
Economic Preferences ◽  
New Policies ◽  
The Eu

Differentiated integration is a durable feature of the European Union and a major alternative for its future development and reform. This book provides a comprehensive conceptual, theoretical and empirical analysis of differentiation in European integration. It explains differentiation in EU treaties and legislation in general and offers specific accounts of differentiation in the recent enlargements of the EU, the Euro crisis, the Brexit negotiations and the integration of non-member states. Differentiated integration is a legal instrument that European governments use regularly to overcome integration deadlock in EU treaty negotiations and legislation. Instrumental differentiation adjusts integration to the heterogeneity of economic preferences and capacities, particularly in the context of enlargement. By contrast, constitutional differentiation accommodates concerns about national self-determination. Whereas instrumental differentiation mainly affects poorer (new) member states, constitutional differentiation offers wealthier and nationally oriented member states opt-outs from the integration of core state powers. The book shows that differentiated integration has facilitated the integration of new policies, new members and even non-members. It has been mainly ‘multi-speed’ and inclusive. Most differentiations end after a few years and do not discriminate against member states permanently. Yet differentiation is less suitable for reforming established policies, managing disintegration, and fostering solidarity, and the path-dependency of core state power integration may lead to permanent divides in the Union.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig ◽  
Thomas Winzen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Class Membership ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Reform Debate

The concept of differentiated integration has become a cornerstone of the debate on the reform and future of the European Union. This chapter introduces key concerns in this debate including the view that deeper integration will require greater differentiation and the fear that this will put the EU on a slippery slope towards ‘ever looser union’ and ‘two-class membership’. This introductory chapter summarizes the book’s arguments about the EU reform debate and differentiated integration. Among others, it states that differentiated integration has not produced ‘ever looser union’ but has been predominantly ‘multi-speed’ differentiation. Whereas differentiation has facilitated European integration under conditions of increasing international heterogeneity, it is an obstacle towards European solidarity and the consolidation of integration. It concludes with an overview of the chapters.

EU Membership: Formal and Substantive Dimensions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Paul CRAIG
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Membership is central to the EU, as it is to any other international organisation. Withdrawal has assumed centre-stage through Brexit. While there is literature that is relevant to membership, most notably through academic discourse on differentiated integration, there is little more general inquiry concerning membership, the concept of which has importance and implications over and beyond more particular avenues of scholarship. This article examines the formal and substantive dimensions of membership and withdrawal in the EU.

scholarly journals Differentiated Integration and Disintegration in the EU: Brexit, the Eurozone Crisis, and Other Troubles

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-507
Author(s):  
Menelaos Markakis
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Inner Core ◽  
Outer Core ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Eurozone Crisis ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This article looks at theories of differentiated integration and disintegration in the wake of the Eurozone crisis and the Brexit referendum. It advances four distinct, albeit interrelated, arguments with respect to these proposals. First, it could be contested whether certain policy areas should be pushed to the ‘outer core’ of European integration. Second, it would be very difficult to disentangle those areas to be pushed to the ‘outer core’ from those areas remaining in the ‘inner core’. Third, the legal and institutional arrangements for organizing differentiated integration are equally important. Fourth, even if the problems adumbrated above could be addressed satisfactorily, the emerging arrangements for differentiated integration would differ little from the degree of flexibility or variation that already exists within some of those areas. Brexit may be viewed as an opportunity for reform to ‘fix’ those issues that are regarded as problematic in the design or functioning of the EU. Should it appear desirable to pursue differentiated integration, the better course of action would be to build on those opportunities for differentiated integration that are offered by the EU Treaties. Any forthcoming Treaty revision to take stock of Brexit could be used to give added impetus to differentiated integration.

scholarly journals Enhanced Cooperation, EMU Reforms and Their Implications for Differentiation in the European Union

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-106
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kubin
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Maastricht Treaty ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Future ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
Treaty Of Amsterdam ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Initially, before the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, differences in integration between members of the European Communities (EC; later the European Union) were relatively few and usually temporary in nature. The Schengen Agreement, the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Amsterdam, and the possibility of establishing enhanced cooperation meant that the problem was becoming more and more important in the functioning of the EU—both in theory and in practice. The objective of the paper is to show that for several years, along with the stagnation in the deepening of integration between all the EU Member States, differentiation of integration in the EU is progressing very rapidly. The progressing differentiation in the EU is a consequence of mainly two processes: the development of enhanced cooperation and reforms in the eurozone, which are strengthened by the widening of the EU. The article covers the issue of the categorization of differentiation of European Union integration, which constitutes the theoretical framework for further considerations. Specified processes which contribute to increasing the differentiation of the EU are discussed, showing the development of enhanced cooperation in the EU and presenting the reforms of the eurozone. The article concludes with the identification and the consequences of differentiated integration, both those that have already occurred and those that may occur in the future.

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