Enhanced Cooperation in the EU Abstract Enhanced cooperation has been a widely discussed in the context of the further possible development of the European integration and its direction. It represents a mechanism which introduces elements of flexible integration into the EU law. This thesis aims to provide a complete view of the process of enhanced cooperation. The first part focuses on the definition of flexibility and its theoretical concepts. The following parts of the thesis are then fully focused on enhanced cooperation as a specific legal instrument regulated by the Treaties. First of all, it mentions its historical development from the Treaty of Amsterdam to the Treaty of Lisbon and the changes it has undergone. After that there is the analysis of the legal provisions on enhanced cooperation itself. It discusses the whole process of establishing enhanced cooperation and the conditions necessary for that. There are also discussed special rules for activation of enhanced cooperation in the area of the common foreign and security policy and the police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Furthermore, a substantial part of the work is devoted to the application of enhanced cooperation in practice. Five cases of enhanced cooperation established so far are analysed in that part. In each case, the...

In the field of European studies, the notion of ‘differentiated integration’ (Stubb 1996) was developed in the late 1990s as an alternative to the crude membership/non-membership dichotomy. While the theoretical benefits of this approach are broadly discussed in the existing literature, further empirical studies have been deemed necessary (Holzinger and Schimmelfennig 2012). The Nordic states constitute a particularly interesting laboratory in order to study this phenomenon. Indeed, while these states share several socio-economic and political characteristics, they also differ in terms of their relationship with the European Union. Several studies on these relationships emphasise the relevance of certain contextual variables as key explanatory factors for the variation in attitudes between the Nordic states. However, there is also lack of analysis that looks into the domestic political features that these countries share. Furthermore, most studies in the field tend to ignore the respective government’s positions on European integration, and mostly adopt a top-down approach when focusing on the nation-state as a whole. Adopting a most similar systems design, this thesis aims to answer the following question: have Nordic government preferences on European integration been influenced by domestic political factors? In order to answer this question, four domestic variables are introduced and analysed: relative strength of parties in parliament; composition of government; type of government; and government ideology. Within this comparative framework, three Nordic countries have been selected: the first one belonging to the ‘inner core’ of the European Union (Finland);; while the second is located at its ‘outer core’ (Sweden);; and the third one serves as a control case as an ‘EU-outsider’ which is still located in the Union’s ‘inner periphery’ (Norway). For each state, the analysis starts in the early 1990s, when ‘Europe’ developed into a politically salient issue in domestic politics. The focus is furthermore set on their respective government’s positions regarding five distinct policy areas: participation in the European Economic Area; application for European Union membership; participation in the Schengen Area; participation in the Economic and Monetary Union; and participation in European Battle Groups. The main findings of the thesis suggest that when analysing governments’ positions on (differentiated) European integration, the domestic political features should not be downplayed. For instance, the Swedish government’s opposition to participation in the EMU in 1997 is mostly explained by a lack of party consensus over this issue, unlike in Finland where a broad inter-party agreement was secured for this policy area. The analysis further suggests that studies on party and government preferences on Europe should focus on policy areas rather than on the issue of integration as a whole. Such a focus provides for better understanding of the nature of ‘Euroscepticism’ in the Nordic region and, to a broader extent, in Europe.

The introduction of the European Union (EU) macro-regional strategies (MRS) in the latter half of the 2000s was a significant step in the process of transformation of EU governance system. EU MRSs act as a new form of comprehensive governance framework for multi-objective and cross-sectoral cooperation in geographically defined macro-regions. This thesis examines the case of the Baltic Sea Region in order to evaluate a potential of this new governance instrument to transform cooperation arrangements in the region. In order to shed light on the strategy’s patterns and dynamics, the present study utilizes a qualitative methodological approach that uses document analysis based on a comprehensive analytical framework. The analytical framework incorporates the theoretical perspectives of multi-level and experimentalist governance, as well as the theory of differentiated integration. The main findings of this study suggest that the inception of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) in 2009 has offered an innovative and dynamic framework for cooperation that enabled a wider representation and more active participation of local and regional actors. This allowed for a more coherent and coordinated policymaking, facilitated a more responsive and transparent cooperation system in the region, as well as fostered transnational cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region by ensuring a wider engagement of non-EU countries.

Multi-speed European Union is a very up-to-date topic especially in terms of the finance and debt crisis, which deepened the differences between member states' economies. Multi-speed integration is one of the ways how to satisfy the claims of all member states, respect their different socioeconomic conditions and interests and at the same time not to disturb the integration process. The objective of this thesis is to introduce the concept of multi-speed integration from different theoretical points of view, to outline its historical development and assess its positive and negative impacts on the EU as a whole and on Slovakia. The analysis of impacts of the Economic and Monetary Union's multi-speed character on Slovakia is the key part of this thesis. These impacts on Slovakia are both positive and negative, but some of them cannot be categorized in general. In the aggregate the positive impacts prevail.

The thesis focuses on the British approach to EMU fiscal rules. Theoretical and conceptual framework is based on the theory of differentiated integration dealing with a various forms of closer cooperation among EU Member States. The research is built on the theoretical approach as described by Frank Schimmelfennig, Dirk Leuffen and Berthold Rittberger. Authors provide an analysis of conditions of differentiated integration within the EU. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question of why the United Kingdom decided not to participate in the fiscal compact and, consequently, did not allow further differentiated integration within the treaties (which led to an arrangement outside the EU legal framework) while accepting the initial fiscal rules agreed in the 1990s as well as other crisis reforms of EU fiscal governance. The first part describes Maastricht and SGP fiscal rules and analyses both the UK's position within EMU and the SGP provisions applied to the UK. The next chapter examines the British approach towards both the SGP revisions and the Euro Plus Pact. The third part analyses the new fiscal compact and explains why the UK decided to use the veto. In conclusion, the thesis provides an answer to the research question as set down in the introduction.

One thing the European Union and Germany have in common is their self-imposed role as forerunners in the field of climate policy. Therefore, this thesis explores whether this may be all the two have in common in this area, or whether they are pursuing the same objectives. For this purpose, a framework based on the theory of differentiated integration has been created to examine the extent to which German climate targets harmonize with those defined by the EU. Over a period from 2009 until the acceptance of the European Green Deal in 2020, I conclude that the German climate policy along its climate targets is, with minor exceptions, increasingly harmonized with the EU guidelines.

Over the last decade, a confluence of strategic and security concerns has threatened the European Union’s survival both within and beyond its political dimension. As a result, security and defence have risen to the top of the EU’s political agenda, culminating in the approval of the EU Global Strategy (EUGS) in 2016. The EUGS represented a watershed moment in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy: the EU agreed on ambitious levels of security and defence. The new policy is based on supporting capacity building among member states through instruments such as PESCO. Nonetheless, these instruments have caused variations in patterns of member state behaviour that have enhanced defense integration. This research aims to understand what was the PESCO institutional effect on Member States' preferences and how it has affected the European security and defense goals. The research highlights the role of European agencies and how they contributed to solve collective action problem through a ‘forum effect' on participants, using pro-actively the task of assessing co-operative projects proposals. As a result, PESCO’s institutional effect led to cooperative outcomes between nations that allowed them to overcome coordination dilemmas, namely uncertainty about the willingness to contribute to a common project, which is typical of defense cooperation. Here, we used Rational Choice Institutionalism theory to investigate the PESCO project structure and its interaction with the European Defence policy. Cooperation between participating member states is presented within a cooperative game action, as part of a theoretical approach to game theory. It explains formally how PESCO entails elements to overcome collective action problem among participating member states, while emphasising the institutional design that promoted the European interests, and how this has led to more Europeanised security and defence. Findings are interpreted under the Differentiated integration concept.

La différenciation entre les États membres de l’Union européenne s’est progressivement transformée en un leitmotiv du débat sur l’avenir de l’intégration. Ce débat a resurgi avec l’activation de la clause du retrait par le Royaume-Uni, qui pose dans un cadre renouvelé la question de la compatibilité du processus de création d’une « union sans cesse plus étroite » avec la possibilité pour les États membres d’emprunter différentes voies d’intégration. L’objectif de la présente étude est d’apporter un éclairage sur cette question, en se focalisant sur l’amplification des manifestations de la différenciation en droit positif. La première partie de l’étude vise à cerner la tension entre l’uniformité du statut d’État membre de l’Union et la participation asymétrique des États aux actions engagées pour la réalisation des objectifs assignés à l’Union. La différenciation s’avère ainsi un facteur de relativisation de l’homogénéité du statut d’État membre, sans néanmoins mettre en cause son unicité en tant que catégorie juridique. La seconde partie s’intéresse aux effets de la différenciation sur la structure de l’Union. La prise en compte de la différence d’implication des États n’est pas sans incidence sur le système institutionnel et juridique de l’Union, sans que cela traduise un désordre affectant l’intégrité de l’Union. Il devient alors évident que, dans la creatio continua que constitue la construction européenne, la différenciation pose une question de degré, plutôt que de principe. / Differentiation between the Member States of the European Union has gradually turned into a leitmotif of the debate regarding the future of the European integration. This debate re-emerged in the context of the activation of the withdrawal clause by the United Kingdom, by raising once more the question of the compatibility of the "ever closer union" concept with the possibility for the Member States to follow different paths of integration. The aim of this study is to clarify this question by focusing on the amplification of the various forms of differentiation in positive law. The first part of the study aims to identify the contrast between the uniformity of the EU membership and the asymmetrical participation of the Member States in actions undertaken to achieve the objectives assigned to the Union. Differentiation proves thus to be a relativizing factor of the homogeneity of the Member State's status, without, however, questioning its uniqueness as a legal category. The second part of the study focuses on the effects of differentiation on the structure of the Union. The different extent of participation of each Member State in EU policies has an impact on the Union's institutional and legal framework, even though this impact does not create a disorder affecting the integrity of the Union as such. It is thus apparent that within the creatio continua of the European construction, differentiation poses more a question of degree rather than principle.

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.