Ever Looser Union?: Differentiated European Integration

Differentiated integration allows the European Union to exempt or exclude member states from benefits or obligations of membership. Throughout its history, and most prominently in the Eurozone and the Schengen Area, the EU has used differentiated integration to overcome negotiation deadlock driven by strong diversity in its member states’ integration preferences and capacities. Differentiated integration is also discussed as an alternative to uniform integration in the reform and future development of the EU. This book offers the reader a comprehensive account and assessment of differentiation in European integration, including an analysis of differentiation in EU enlargement, the Eurozone crisis, Brexit, and the selective integration of non-member states.