Maintaining the EU’s experimental polity during the long crisis decade

The EU is still fragile after its long decade of crises since 2008, and its durability remains an open question. New capacities were created during this time. But it is not clear how robust they are and whether developing them further will encounter insurmountable obstacles, including resentment by citizens. We argue that the sequence of sectoral/policy crises produced a deep political crisis which unsettled fundamental assumptions and practices regarding the exercise of authority and its legitimation. Over time, tensions and disagreements unleashed three foundational conflicts: conflicts over sovereignty (who decides), solidarity (who gets what when and why) and identity (who we are). The crisis politics that was deployed to deal with such tensions has constrained policy responses in their scope and effectiveness. Against all odds, however, the destructive spiral stopped short of driving the Union into self-destruction: a circumstance that still calls for an explanation. Based on empirical research in SOLID, we examine three ways in which this unexpected resilience can be explained: externalisation strategies, the paradoxical strength of a weak centre, and deliberate efforts at polity maintenance.