Governing Differentiation and Integration in the European Union: Patterns, Effectiveness and Legitimacy

Abstract

Speakers  Matteo Bonomi, IAI  'Introduction: Governing differentiation and integration in the European Union: Patterns, effectiveness and legitimacy' Sandra Lavenex, University of Geneva  'A governance perspective on DI' Nicoletta Pirozzi, IAI  'Differentiated cooperation through local authority networks: Challenges and opportunities' Pier Domenico Tortola, University of Groningen  'Expectations on EU external DI and enlargement' In this Seminar, Speakers will deliver presentations drawing on the key theoretical underpinnings and general approach of the Special Issue in The International Spectator. 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.