Differentiation in the EU: Flexibility and Compliance

Abstract

Many EU policies offer forms of flexibility and differentiation in order to cope with heterogeneity among the member states. This may take various forms: offering room for member state choices in implementing EU law (flexible implementation), granting opt-outs and exemptions to certain member states (differentiated integration), or designing policy frameworks that allow for the gradual development and recalibration of policies over time (experimentalist governance). This panel brings together three papers that look at these various forms of flexibility in EU policy-making: - The paper by Zbiral, Princen and Smekal maps the scope for flexible implementation in EU directives. - The paper by Sczepanski and Börzel analyses the link between differentiated integration and (non-)compliance with EU secondary law. - The paper by Zeitlin looks at the extent to which experimentalist governance may be an effective and legitimate means of responding to diversity among EU member states.

Title	Details
Mapping the scope for flexible implementation in EU directives	View Paper Details
Linking Differentiated Integration and Compliance – Same-Same but Different?	View Paper Details
United in Diversity? European Regulation between Uniformity, Experimentalism, and Differentiation	View Paper Details