Insight
A flexible EU: A new beginning or the beginning of the end? by Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska and Christian Odendahl 18 May 2017
The EU needs to become more flexible if it is to tackle current and future challenges effectively. But it should do so transparently, and remain inclusive. Flexible integration in the EU is the practice whereby coalitions of the willing can push forward in particular policy areas, leaving others to catch up or fall behind. It is the boomerang of European politics: it keeps coming back. Often when the EU is struggling to reach a consensus in response to a difficult challenge, a group of governments will use the threat of flexible integration to force objectors to cave in. When agreement is reached, the threat evaporates – and with it the debate about flexible integration. But things are different this time. After emerging splits between North and South in the euro crisis, and East and West over refugees, plus the Brexit referendum, the time has come for the EU to recognise that crises are the new normal, and that flexible integration may at times be inevitable. In March, the European Commission published a white paper sketching out five scenarios for the EU by 2025. One scenario foresaw a group of member-states working together without all 27 on board. The leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy argued afterwards that flexible integration could help make the EU decision-making process more efficient and reconcile member-states’ different levels of ambition. But newer and smaller member-states fear that flexible integration could allow large member-states like France and Germany to pursue their pet projects while ignoring the concerns of others; they worry that this could lead to the fragmentation or even disintegration of the EU. Encouragingly, flexible integration has existed for some time, and the European project has not collapsed. It comes in three main forms: opt-outs (which allow some member-states to move more slowly, or not at all); enhanced co-operation (an arrangement foreseen in the EU treaties that allows a group of countries to integrate more closely, but with safeguards for others, including the chance to join in later); and international treaties between groups of member-states outside the EU framework.
CER INSIGHT: A flexible EU: A new beginning or the beginning of the end? 18 May 2017
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