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Thym, Daniel --- "Competing models for understanding differentiated integration" [2017] ELECD 389; in De Witte, Bruno; Ott, Andrea; Vos, Ellen (eds), "Between Flexibility and Disintegration" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 28

Book Title: Between Flexibility and Disintegration

Editor(s): De Witte, Bruno; Ott, Andrea; Vos, Ellen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783475889

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Competing models for understanding differentiated integration

Author(s): Thym, Daniel

Number of pages: 48

Abstract/Description:

Debates about differentiated integration are among the rituals of European integration. Whenever the EU enters a critical stage, politicians and academic observers evoke the option of ‘multiple speeds’, ‘concentric circles’ or related terminology and call upon some Member States to proceed towards closer integration without the participation of others. More recent arguments about differentiated integration replicate earlier debates and, yet, there is something novel about them. It is true that the experience with various forms of differentiated integration over the past two decades has been fairly positive: defence policy, justice and home affairs and the generic mechanism for enhanced cooperation demonstrate that differentiated integration within the EU framework may proceed rather smoothly in practice. Also, the crisis of monetary union does not originate primarily in the asymmetric non-participation of some Member States but in the structural deficits of both the Treaty design and its implementation. This shows that differentiated integration can support the integration process. What is new about recent developments, however, is the pertinence and visibility of differentiated integration as a result of the euro crisis. It is no longer a peripheral occurrence, but it takes centre stage in legal and political debates.