Themen europäischer Politik und Integration wissenschaftlich untersuchen und zur praktischen Umsetzung bringen – unser Auftrag seit 1959.
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EU IDEA — Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability
Differentiation has become the new normal in the European Union (EU) and one of the most crucial matters in defining its future. A certain degree of differentiation has always been part of the European integration project since its early days. The Eurozone and the Schengen area have further consolidated this trend into long-term projects of differentiated integration among EU Member States.
A number of unprecedented internal and external challenges to the EU, however, including the financial and economic crisis, the migration phenomenon, renewed geopolitical tensions and Brexit, have reinforced today the belief that more flexibility is needed within the complex EU machinery. A Permanent Structured Cooperation, for example, has been launched in the field of defence, enabling groups of willing and able Member States to join forces through new, flexible arrangements. Differentiation could offer a way forward also in many other key policy fields within the Union, where uniformity is undesirable or unattainable, as well as in the design of EU external action within an increasingly unstable global environment, offering manifold models of cooperation between the EU and candidate countries, potential accession countries and associated third countries.
EU IDEA’s key goal is to address whether, how much and what form of differentiation is not only compatible with, but is also conducive to a more effective, cohesive and democratic EU. The basic claim of the project is that differentiation is not only necessary to address current challenges more effectively, by making the Union more resilient and responsive to citizens. Differentiation is also desirable as long as such flexibility is compatible with the core principles of the EU’s constitutionalism and identity, sustainable in terms of governance, and acceptable to EU citizens, Member States and affected third partners.
The project puts together 15 EU and extra-EU partners in a joint research and dissemination effort coordinated by the International Affairs Institute, starting from January 2019 and lasting for three years. It examines the historical and philosophical foundations of differentiation, within and outside the EU; it addresses differentiation in relation to governance and accountability, constitutionalisation and European identity issues; it analyses the EU’s practice of differentiation in key policy areas such as the Economic and Monetary Union and the single market, the foreign, security and defense policy, and the area of freedom, security and justice, including migration policy, keeping a special focus on the implications of Brexit; and it investigates the different national visions as regards differentiation, both at the level of political elites and citizens.
The results of the research will be used to define the criteria – institutional, political and social – to analyse future scenarios of differentiated integration (or disintegration) and to draw up recommendations to European and national institutions.
More information on the EU IDEA website: www.euidea.eu
Research activities
EU IDEA will:
analyse the causes and effects of differentiation and the conditions under which it facilitates policy-making, problem-solving and policy implementation by combining theoretical and empirical analyses;
situate differentiation in its historical context and draw on previous experiences with differentiated governance within the EU and in its relationship with external partners, including in-depth explorations of the philosophical foundations of integration and differentiation;
conduct a reappraisal of existing models of differentiation and contribute to the development of novel theories of differentiation with regard to governance and accountability;
unpack the narratives on European constitutionalism and identity, including an analysis of the effects that these may have for relations with candidate countries, potential accession countries and associated third countries;
assess opportunities, benefits and risks of more or less differentiation in key policy areas, in normative, institutional, political and societal terms, with a special focus on the Economic and Monetary Union and the single market, the foreign, security and defence policy, and the area of freedom, security and justice, including migration.
devote specific attention to Brexit, by looking at its impact on differentiation within the EU and on innovation in arrangements for cooperation between the EU and third States through a dedicated Observatory on Brexit.
Project structure
Historical and philosophical foundations (WP1)
Coordinator: University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Vision and theoretical conceptualization (WP2)
Coordinator: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Narratives on European constitutionalism and identity (WP3)
Coordinator: Institute for European Politics, Germany
Economic and Monetary Union and the single market (WP4)
Coordinator: Jacques Delors Institute, France
Foreign security and defence policy (WP5)
Coordinator: Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland
The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, including migration (WP6)
Coordinator: Centre for International Information and Documentation in Barcelona, Spain
Observatory on Brexit (WP7)
Coordinator: European Policy Centre, Belgium
National preferences on EU (WP8)
Coordinator: Institute for European Politics, Germany
Implications for EU governance (WP9)
Coordinator: Istituto Affari Internazionali, Italy
Dissemination and Exploitation (WP10)
Coordinator: Eunews/Istituto Affari Internazionali, Italy
IEP is looking forward to leading the work packages on “Narratives on European constitutionalism and identity” and “National preferences on EU”.
Project leader of the IEP is Dr. Funda Tekin (E‑Mail).