A EUROPEAN UNION À LA CARTE? REFLECTIONS ON STRUCTURAL ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE
A EUROPEAN UNION À LA CARTE? REFLECTIONS ON STRUCTURAL ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE

Summary/Abstract: Recent developments within the European Union have made scholars and politicians alike question the depth of the institutional reform processes conducted by the Treaty of Lisbon, to the extent that a new Intergovernmental Conference is likely to occur in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the economic downturn, the Union has become endowed with numerous financial instruments meant to tackle the multiple facets of the crisis and its outcomes, whose analysis is paramount for the understanding of the degree of readiness the Community framework exhibits at this time, from a financial standpoint. In the light of the above, one questions the usefulness and feasibility of a possible return to the community method, which did yield considerable results in the previous steps of the integration process. Our study performs a scenario analysis of the hypothetical application of this method in the current context, set against the background of the pattern of multilevel governance that has resulted from recent evolutions. Special emphasis is placed on the specific mechanisms of the European Semester, which denotes a set of procedures and institutional endeavours assisting in the implementation of the latest multiannual agenda of the Union, namely Europe 2020. Structural and administrative reforms but also capacity building and competitive federalism emerge as potential facets of the broader Europe à la carte concept, itself lying at the core of this analysis.

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