EU Boundaries in Differentiated Integration: Functionalist Versus Federalist

Drawing on the literature on multilevel governance in Europe, this paper starts from the dual conceptualisation of the European integration process as encompassing, federalist political project on the one hand (in L. Hooghe's and G. Mark's terminology "type I"), and a sector-specific, fragmented functionalist process on the other ("type II"). Whereas the EU's encompassing project sees itself challenged by increasing politicisation and "post-functionalist" calls for disintegration and re-nationalisation, the same must not be true for the EU's more technocratic governance in individual policy areas. Likewise, whereas political forces may pressure towards a stronger external closure of the European Union in fields like enlargement, asylum policy, and foreign and defence policy, societal forces may sustain technocratic networking with interdependent third countries in individual policy areas, thereby maintaining the contingency of EU boundaries that contributes to the differentiated integration of third countries. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of EU boundary foundation at the level of sector-specific institutions, focusing in particular on the sectors of border management, police cooperation, finance, aviation, chemicals safety and research. More specifically, we examine whether (and to what extent) European regulatory agencies or committees active in these areas have maintained their permeability towards associated third countries allowing for different degrees of organisational and regulatory inclusion or whether increasing politicisation and external boundary-formation effectively extend to "type II" governance and increasingly preclude participation by associated countries (candidate countries, EEA/EFTA countries, Switzerland, ENP countries and other third countries).