European Integration Summer School

Differentiated Integration in the European Union (EU)

The Brexit vote of June 2016 sent shockwaves across the continent and the world. It added yet another crisis to a series of major crises the EU found itself exposed to – from the global financial and economic crisis of 2007/8 to the most recent one caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The EU is likely to remain prone of what has accurately been labelled a “polycrisis” (Zeitlin 2016), we assume; as a consequence, the EU has become increasingly exposed to high levels of public and party-based Euroscepticism in many of its member states reinforcing demands for differentiation of EU integration.

This year we are focusing on studying the interface of the growing scope of differentiation in EU policies and – increasingly – norms and values across the EU’s member states. What are the causes of both (differentiated) integration and disintegration – in particular in light of Brexit? How does the EU cope with its consequences? Many observers have found that the European Union has rather been put on the side-line during the pandemic. Is this assessment correct? And are there ways for the EU to demonstrate that it can complement and lead national governments’ efforts in contexts of security and health threats?

Professor Claudio Radaelli with EISS students

Special Professor in European institutions Michael Shackleton