The EU has been exposed to several crises in recent years. The possibility of differentiated integration as a strategic choice in certain policy areas can counteract the manifold internal and external challenges in the EU. Researchers, EU representatives and experts presented and discussed project results on the topics of differentiation and EU integration.
The Horizon 2020 project "EU IDEA - Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability" aimed to deepen issues of differentiation and integration. This objective is all the more relevant in the context of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, as the future European security order and strategy will have to improve. However, differentiation and flexibility have no place in certain areas, such as the preservation of the EU's fundamental values - according to the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, in his keynote speech at the final conference.
On the topic of "Democracy and legitimacy in a differentiated EU", Dr Funda Tekin presented the research results from the project on narratives and legitimacy in a differentiated EU on one of the conference panels. She emphasised that "the key to the legitimacy of differentiation measures lies in the preferences of political elites and national public opinion".
This video offers an insight into the final conference:
The project "EU IDEA - Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability" ran from January 2019 to April 2022 and was funded under the Horizon 2020 programme.
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