The International Spectator, Vol. 57, No. 1, March 2022

Governing Differentiation and Integration in the European Union: Patterns, Effectiveness and Legitimacy
Guest Editors: Nicoletta Pirozzi, Matteo Bonomi, Sandra Lavenex

Governing Differentiation and Integration in the European Union: Patterns, Effectiveness and Legitimacy
Nicoletta Pirozzi and Matteo Bonomi
We present here the key theoretical underpinnings and general approach of the Special Issue “Governing Differentiation and Integration in the European Union: Patterns, Effectiveness and Legitimacy”, which collects contributions of a group of experts and scholars from the Horizon 2020 EU IDEA – Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability project. The key concepts for the analysis are clarified, namely differentiation, differentiated integration, effectiveness, legitimacy and sustainability. The basic claim of the Special Issue is that differentiation is not only necessary to address current challenges more effectively by making the Union more resilient and responsive to citizens. By introducing a useful degree of flexibility in the complex EU machinery, differentiation is also desirable, so long as such flexibility is compatible with the core principles of EU constitutionalism and identity, sustainable in terms of governance and acceptable to EU citizens, member states and affected third partners.
Keywords: differentiation; differentiated integration; effectiveness; legitimacy; sustainability
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The Politics of EU Differentiated Integration: Between Crises and Dilemmas
Marco Brunazzo
The debate about differentiated integration (DI) from the beginning of the European Union (EU) integration process to the 2017 White Paper on the Future of Europe can be divided into three different periods, according to the main dilemmas that policy-makers tried to address respectively: (i) a political dilemma about the final ‘destination’ of the EU integration project between the 1950s and the 1980s; (ii) a legal dilemma about the mechanism to adopt to promote DI in the 1980s and the 1990s; and (iii) an institutional dilemma about the growing complexity of EU institutions, begun in the 2000s and encapsulated in the Lisbon Treaty. Each period of debate coincided with a specific type of crisis – respectively, a crisis of design, a crisis of (foreseen) enlargement and a crisis of economic adaptation. Based on past and recent history, one can conclude that the debates about DI will become a permanent feature of EU politics.
Keywords: differentiated integration; EU crises; EU political debates; EU enlargements
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Governance, Effectiveness and Legitimacy in Differentiated Integration: An Analytical Framework
Sandra Lavenex and Ivo Križić
The mounting phenomenon of differentiated integration in the EU has hitherto been studied mainly with regard to its drivers and legal configuration. Taking the existence of differentiated integration as a given, a conceptual framework is developed for analysing its governance in practice and the conditions under which this is effective and legitimate. Referring to examples from monetary integration and Justice and Home Affairs, the framework emphasises the interplay between the legal and organisational dimensions of differentiated integration, between commitment to common policies and opportunities for participation in their development and implementation. This includes measures for assessing and conditions for explaining the effectiveness and legitimacy of differentiated integration.
Keywords: differentiated integration; effectiveness; governance; European Union; legitimacy
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Differentiated Cooperation through Local Authority Networks: Challenges and Opportunities
Pier Domenico Tortola and Stefan Couperus
Transnational networks of sub-national authorities are an established and growing phenomenon in Europe, where they perform a number of (soft) governance functions for their members, often in direct connection with European Union (EU) institutions. Differentiation is an inherent characteristic of sub-national authority networks, which is nonetheless still largely unexplored. Building on original empirical data, we identify three dimensions of differentiation generated by networks – ‘insider-outsider’, ‘compound’ and ‘multi-level’ differentiation – and discuss their implications for the efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy of these organisations. Based on our analysis, we also sketch some avenues for future research connecting the national and sub-national dimensions of differentiation in Europe.
Keywords: differentiation; sub-national authorities; transnational networks; multi-level governance; European Union
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Political Differentiation as the End of Political Unity? A Narrative Analysis
Funda Tekin and Vittoria Meissner
Which narratives do political actors use in times of increased political differentiation, and do they use them to strategically promote political unity in the EU? Two periods were selected for a narrative analysis. First, the years 2000-2004 preceding the ‘big bang’ enlargement and second, the crises in the Euro area between 2010 and 2014. Despite more political differentiation in both analysed time periods and their different construction, the narrative analysis shows that political unity was not undermined. The two identified key narratives – ʽunited in diversity’ and ʽdivided in unity’ – legitimised the EU’s political unity by promoting it through differentiated integration.
Keywords: differentiated integration; European Union; narratives; political unity
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What Makes Economic Differentiation Effective? Insights from the EU Energy Sector, Banking Union and Third-Country Access to the Single Market
Andreas Eisl and Eulalia Rubio
Few studies so far have analysed the effectiveness of differentiation in EU policies. This is surprising given the importance and permanence of many differentiated arrangements, for example in EU economic policy. Insights from three studies on differentiation in the energy sector, the financial sector and third-country access to Single Market highlight the importance of institutional factors. EU economic differentiated arrangements tend to be more effective when: (i) there is a good ‘fit’ between the institutional design and the policy objectives; (ii) there are mechanisms to adapt them over time; and (iii) there are institutional provisions to prevent or mitigate negative side effects for the Union as a whole.
Keywords: European Union; differentiation; economic policy; effectiveness
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Differentiated Cooperation in the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy: Effectiveness, Accountability, Legitimacy
Marco Siddi, Tyyne Karjalainen and Juha Jokela
European Union (EU) treaties have introduced legal frameworks for differentiated integration in European foreign and security policy, but they have rarely been used. Instead, member states have engaged in informal practices of differentiated cooperation. Based on an analysis of effectiveness, accountability and legitimacy of differentiated cooperation in the Western Balkans, the Middle East Peace Process, negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme and the Ukraine crisis, we argue that differentiated cooperation has had positive outcomes when it has adhered to common EU values and positions. When this has not been the case, differentiation has undermined EU foreign and security policy.
Keywords: European Union; differentiation; foreign policy; security policy; diplomacy
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Differentiation and De-Differentiation in EU Border Controls, Asylum and Police Cooperation
Emmanuel Comte and Sandra Lavenex
The leading policy objective in EU differentiation underlying border controls, asylum and police cooperation has been to achieve the abolition of internal border controls to create a borderless European single market. Germany has been the main proponent kickstarting and maintaining this agenda through differentiation. For roughly two decades, differentiation has proved effective in abolishing internal border controls, integrating the related cooperation into EU structures, enlisting the cooperation of non-EU member states and producing joint policy outputs on asylum, external borders and police affairs. Yet, growing external migration challenges have undermined the effectiveness and legitimacy of existing arrangements, ushering in disintegration tendencies.
Keywords: asylum; differentiated integration; European Union; migration
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Brexit and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Implications for Internal and External EU Differentiation
Jannike Wachowiak and Fabian Zuleeg
Brexit represents a unique process of European disintegration. It has introduced a new model of external differentiation that is likely to have future implications for existing differentiation both within the EU and between the EU and third countries. An analysis of the new thin, distant and unfinished EU-UK relationship points to likely growing divergence over time. The technocratic governance structure of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is strained by high-friction politics, and its effectiveness, sustainability and legitimacy remain highly contested. The TCA is a testament to a more hard-line EU approach towards third countries, attempting to signal strongly that membership matters, with flexibilities only benefitting those that sign up to the EU’s core principles.
Keywords: Brexit; differentiated integration; Trade and Cooperation Agreement; EU-UK relationship
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Differentiation and EU Governance: Key Elements and Impact
Nicoletta Pirozzi and Matteo Bonomi
Existing literature on differentiated integration has made an important contribution in theorising and operationalising its regulatory dimension. However, in order to fully evaluate the impact of differentiation on EU governance, this approach needs to be enriched with additional elements. The organisational element allows us to grasp the different forms, venues and actors of differentiation. The constitutional element connects the different forms of differentiation to the foundations of EU constitutionalism and identity. The socio-political element goes beyond the analysis of differentiation as a policy practice and qualifies it as a policy choice. On this basis, a generalisation is proposed resulting from a comparative analysis of a wide range of contributions in different policy sectors in order to assess differentiation in the EU’s governance against three main criteria: effectiveness, sustainability and accountability/legitimacy.
Keywords: accountability; differentiation; differentiated integration; effectiveness; EU governance; sustainability
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