Differentiated integration in the EU and the impact of economic and monetary union

Abstract

This research investigates the reality behind the phenomenon of Differentiated Integration in the EU. Integration theories have been in existence since the first six founding members of the ECSC agreed to form a Union in order to preserve a European Identity and eliminate threats of future tensions within the region. Since that day, theorists have been trying to conceptualise every action taken at a European level that promoted further integration. However, the 1990s and more recently the Sovereign debt crisis re-introduced the idea of contemporary integration methods that do not follow a unitary type of approach when describing events in European history. An example of such 'new' forms of integration include specifically Differentiated Integration. With an 'Ever growing Union', that currently holds 28 member states, each bringing into the EU a level of diversity and heterogeneity, the 'European project' struggled to push forward the aim of achieving full integration. For this reason, scholars recognised that throughout history, the EU opted for greater levels of flexibilities and differentiated treatments in order to foster cooperation and increase the level of integration within the Union and amongst member states. The aim of this thesis is to validate the existence of differentiation within the EU, and more specifically the influence of the EMU, by analysing whether such trends on its utilisation have occurred throughout the decades. Consequently, another goal of this study is to identify whether the reforms originating from the EMU following the Sovereign Debt crisis have created an EU travelling at two-speeds, showing the political impacts the EMU had on differentiation in the EU.