Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse Europol. The research questions are: - How would increased powers for Europol impact on the cooperation between Europol and police authorities in EU-member states? - Which one of the two theories transactionalism and neofunctionalism can best create an understanding of Europol and its integration with the police of the member states? In so doing the study applies a qualitative method. Europol is the European Police Office and it was established through the Maastricht treaty in 1992 with the purpose of making the integration between police of the EU member states more efficient. In order for Europol to make integration between the police of member states more efficient it can be suggested that it needs for Europol to develop into having executive powers. One conclusion of this study is that Europol is an important tool for integration in the EU but there are at least three issues that are influencing the level of effectiveness in the integration work between the police of the member states; possible mistrust, that Europol has no executive powers and that it is voluntary for member states to participate in assisting Europol with information. Another conclusion is that Europol can be understood through an integration perspective when transactionalism and neofunctionalism are complementing each other.

This paper presents a case study of a regional integration called East African Community (EAC) that associates Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda later joined Rwanda and Burundi. The main research question is the reason for creation of the EAC. Congruence method is used to answer this question with further investigation to confirm existence of the causal relationship. There are three theories used to formulate a hypothesis concerning formation of the EAC - neofunctionalism, realism and liberal theory of international relation in the form reformulated by Andrew Moravcsik. Neofunctionalism cannot explain emergence of the EAC as strong supranational actor, key neofunctionalists feature, is not present. Spillover process also does not occur. Realism also fails to provide an explanation, although the end of the Cold War brings shift in global power structure. East Africa is also endangered by economic marginalization caused by integration of other parts of the continent. However intrastate and regional political instability and security threats were more important at that time. The EAC also does not correspond with the notion of only low politics integration. Liberalism offers most reasonable explanation that integration is based on common interest in development and fight against poverty. Common historical...

Uppsatsens syfte är att förstå hur den Europeiska kommissionen och Europaparlamentet diskuterar differentierad integration. Metoden som används är en kvalitativ textanalys där teorier om europeisk integration från forskningsområdet internationella relationer används som analysverktyg. En slutsats som dras är att teorierna om neofunktionalism och liberal intergovernmentalism kan komplettera varandra för att ge en mer mångsidig förståelse av de något olika diskussionerna. Den Europeiska kommissionen och Europaparlamentet vill i de tolkade dokumenten främst bibehålla en enhetlig union, men de är villiga att ge frihet till ambitiösa medlemsstater inom särskilda policyområden genom inkluderande opt in-lösningar av differentierad integration. Den Europeiska kommissionen och Europaparlamentet är motståndare till exkluderande opt out-lösningar av differentierad integration, de menar att exkluderande former av differentiering exempelvis skulle kunna leda till polarisering, fragmentering och ett upplevt skapande av ett första- och andraklassens EU-medlemskap. Gradvist tillträde är därmed historiskt sett som en sämre lösning till problemet kring kandidatländers integration, om gradvist tillträde skulle implementeras i integrationsprocessen för framtida kandidatländer skulle det därmed innebära ett trendbrott inom utvidgningspolicyn från den Europeiska unionen. / The thesis’ purpose is to understand how the European Commission and the European Parliament discusses differentiated integration. The method applied is a qualitative text analysis in which theories of European integration from the research field of international relations is used as an analytical tool. One conclusion recognises the fact that both the theory of neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism are complementary tools in understanding the discussions from a multitude of perspectives. The European Commission and the European Parliament expressed in the analysed documents that uniform integration within the Union is preferred, but they are still open to giving freedom to Member States in specific policy areas through inclusionary opt-in measures of differentiated integration. The European Commission and European Parliament are opposed to exclusionary opt-out measures of differentiation, as they mean it could lead to polarisation, fragmentation, and the perceived notion of first- and second-class Member States. Staged accession is therefore historically seen as a poor solution to the problem of integrating the candidate countries, if staged accession would be implemented into the integration process for future candidate countries, it would therefore mark a change in trend within the enlargement policy of the European Union.