European variations as a key to cooperation / Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Emina Ćerimović, Huub Dijstelbloem, Mathieu Segers

Includes bibliographical references

1 Introduction -- 2 The Tension Between Image and Reality -- 3 Growing Frictions -- 4 Beyond the Institutional Form: Motivations for Collective Action -- 5 Variation and the Internal Market -- 6 Variations in the European Union -- 7 Variation and the Euro -- 8 Variation in Asylum, Migration and Border Control -- 9 Conclusions -- Appendix A Applying the Matrix -- Possibilities and Impossibilities of European Public Tasks -- Tensions Associated with the Influx of Refugees: Relocation of Asylum Seekers by Means of a Quota System -- The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Formerly FRONTEX): ‘Flexible Solidarity’? -- Revision of the Posting of Workers Directive According to the Principle ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work in the Same Place’ -- Member States’ Different Positions -- Appendix B List of Interviewees – Bibliography -- Legal Sources

This Open Access book offers a novel view on the benefits of a lasting variation between the member states in the EU. In order to bring together thirty very different European states and their citizens, the EU will have to offer more scope for variation. Unlike the existing differentiation by means of opt-outs and deviations, variation is not a concession intended to resolve impasses in negotiations; it is, rather, a different structuring principle. It takes differences in needs and in democratically supported convictions seriously. A common core remains necessary, specifically concerning the basic principles of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the common market. By taking this approach, the authors remove the pressure to embrace uniformity from the debate about the EU's future. The book discusses forms of variation that fall both within and outside the current framework of European Union Treaties. The scope for these variations is mapped out in three domains: the internal market; the euro; and asylum, migration and border control