Does Differentiation Lead to Disintegration?
Does Differentiation Lead to Disintegration?

Insights from Theories of European Integration and Comparative Regionalism

Summary/Abstract: Differentiated integration is often considered integration gone wrong’ andnot a normal and permanent feature of the ever larger and more heterogeneous European Union. With the growing impact of the widening, deepening and politicization dynamics, the Union has been conceptualized as a ‘system of differentiated integration’. At the sametime, concerns over ‘disintegration’ are mounting. In this light it seems crucial to reflecton the relationship between differentiation and disintegration: does the former lead to thelatter? Should we prevent further differentiation, or promote it as means of making the EUmore successful? On one hand, European integration theories provide few adequate answerson the mechanisms and conditions for disintegration. On the other hand, analysis of other regional organizations puts the European dilemma into perspective, and it seems that theexistence of various forms of differentiation does not prevent successful cooperation.

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