Not an 'ever closer union' any more? – British and Dutch reform proposals in the light of dynamic federal theories

The proposed Paper analyses the Britisch and the Dutch position towards a reform of the EU system and searches for explanations for the positions and their differences in the light of dynamic federalism theories. Federal systems are seen as dynamic systems in which simultaneous centrifugal and centripetal trends are going on in different fields. The reasons for dynamics which are expected by these theories are located in the social or the economic dimension of a political system or deriving from path dependencies. Dynamics are caught by elaborated indices measuring self rule and shared rule. The Paper transfers dynamic federal theories, their assumptions of causalities and their indices to the EU system, taking into account similarities and differences with traditional EU integration theories. The British and the Dutch positions, launched in speeches, parliamentary documents, and reviews that scanned EU legislative competences are analysed and compared. A lot of issues, like the turn away from the “ever closer union” and towards flexible – asymmetrical – integration, the re-naitonalisation of legislative competences, the strengthening of national parliaments are identic, but the British positon is much more euroskeptic and brought – with the announcement of the BREXIT referendum much more powerful. The Paper shows that dynamic federalism theories are not only able to explain these centrifugal trends but also the differences between the positions of the two countries.